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| What
We Do |
| Institutional
Legislative Systems - ILS |
| An
Integrated Climate Risk Management Approach |
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| A
UNDP Expert
Group Meeting on Integrating Disaster Reduction with Adaptation
to Climate Change was held in Havana, June 19-21,
2002. The main output of the meeting was "A
Climate Risk Management Approach to Disaster Reduction and Adaptation
to Climate Change" (see also the Executive
Summary).
Processes
of global change are adding new dimensions to the problems of
risk accumulation and disaster occurrence and loss. Socio-economic
and environmental processes are being affected by changes in risk
patterns, worsening the social, economic, territorial, physical
and political vulnerability of large sectors of the populations.
'Whether
dealing with actual potential disaster contexts, or future impacts
associated with climate variability and change, the essential
challenge is risk reduction, risk control, the increase in human
resilience and increased capacities to adapt continually and prospectively
to possible environmental extremes and conditions. |
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is imperative that we develop an integrated risk management focus
that brings together current risk and disaster and adaptation
to climate change concerns and communities, relating these closely
to sectoral and territorial sustainable development caucuses and
agencies. This synthesis should be articulated and operationalized
into one of total risk management for a wide range of elements
at risk, ranging from communities to ecosystems, at long and short
time scales and across spatial scales. (e.g. restoring ecosystems
at the landscape level can reduce local vulnerability and risk
but can also improve environmental conditions at the different
levels).
Applications
of an integrated risk management framework in decision making
should take into consideration that: |
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The current development situation and needs
in a particular location is the most appropriate starting
point for additional risk reduction and control efforts
of an adaptive nature.
- Adaptation strategies currently being
pursued in local, regional and national settings are often
extensions of on-going efforts to reduce climate related
disaster risks.
- While past climate is not a good guide
as to the future climate, past experiences
and lessons learned from efforts to improve management of
climate variability are valuable for adapting to climate
change. In addition, spatial and temporal trends in past
disaster events reveal current vulnerabilities and risks.
- Adaptive learning comes from doing, and
lessons must be learnt from successful and best practices
already implemented. It is highly unlikely that adaptation
will come from a priori planning.
- Adaptation will require continual adjustment
of risk management practices to account for changing climate
hazard and vulnerability conditions. |
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| Integrated
climate risk management would need to include elements of anticipatory
risk management (ensuring that future development reduces rather
than increases risk), compensatory risk management (actions to
mitigate the losses associated with existing risk) and reactive
risk management (ensuring that risk is not reconstructed after
disaster events). Moreover, it will have to take into account
both potential impacts on socio-economic and environmental systems.
It
could provide a framework to allow the disaster community to move
beyond the still dominant focus on preparedness and response and
for the adaptation to climate change community to move beyond
the design of hypothetical future adaptation strategies. In some
regions, such as the Caribbean and the South Pacific, synergy
such as this is already being achieved. |
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