Man's action on the climate contributes to a growing number of disasters in the world, alerted the UN on Tuesday April 26, calling to stop this
"spiral of self-destruction"
facing humanity.
In a new report, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction points out that disasters are increasing rapidly around the world due to human-induced climate change and poor management. inadequate risk.
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The report reveals that between 350 and 500 medium and large-scale disasters have occurred each year over the past two decades.
The cost of these disasters has averaged about $170 billion a year over the past decade.
Droughts, extreme temperatures, floods... the number of disasters is expected to rise to 560 per year - or 1.5 per day - by 2030 (compared to 400 in 2015), and endanger millions of lives.
"The world must do more to integrate disaster risk into the way we live, build and invest
," said UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed in the presentation of the report.
She called on the international community to disengage humanity from this
“spiral of self-destruction”
.
“We need to turn our collective complacency into action.
Together we can slow the pace of preventable disasters
,” she added.
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The report laments that the world has a misperception of the risks associated with natural disasters, and attributes it to an
“underestimation”
of risks and feelings of
“optimism”
and
“invincibility”
.
The report says the scale and intensity of disasters are increasing, with more people killed or affected by disasters in the past five years than in the previous five.
Disasters have a disproportionate impact on developing countries, which lose on average 1% of their GDP per year due to disasters, compared to 0.1 to 0.3% in developed countries.
The highest cost is borne by the Asia-Pacific region.
Since 1980, only 40% of disaster-related losses have been insured, and coverage rates in developing countries are often below 10% – sometimes even close to zero, which worsens the long-term consequences of these disasters.
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“Disasters can be avoided, but only if countries invest the time and resources to understand and reduce the risks
,” said Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction.
“By deliberately ignoring the risks and not integrating them into the decision-making process, the world is funding its own destruction
,” she added.
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