Secretary-General calls on Ministers to use DRR for climate change adaptation

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called a special meeting of Ministers
in New York, 29 September, urging them to make greater commitments to using
disaster risk reduction for climate change adaptation. The Secretary-General called
on Ministers to lead the way at Poznan, Poland, in championing disaster risk
reduction as a core element of climate change adaptation. He urged Governments
to give high priority to implementing disaster risk reduction measures, in order
to achieve the goals set by the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005-2015). “We
must not delay,” said the Secretary-General. “If we are too slow to adapt to climate
change, we risk making disasters even more catastrophic than they need to be. We
must draw on the Hyogo Framework for Action and disaster risk reduction knowledge
to protect the world’s most vulnerable populations against climate change.” The
meeting also urged substantial scaling up of disaster risk reduction funds at national
and international levels in order to reduce the vulnerability of the most affected and
the poorest.