Risk creation is outstripping risk reduction in the world. Humanity’s broken risk perception is reversing global progress in a “spiral of self-destruction”, according to a new United Nations report.
The Global Assessment Report 2022 (GAR2022), released last week by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, said that between 350 and 500 medium- to large-scale disasters took place every year over the past two decades. If current trends continue, the number of disaster events is projected to reach 560 a year – or 1.5 disasters a day – by 2030.
The GAR2022 said a broken perception of risk based on “optimism, underestimation and invincibility,” led to policy, finance and development decisions that could exacerbate existing vulnerabilities. These decisions will put more people in danger because we will be hit harder in the coming years by even more catastrophes.
“The world needs to do more to incorporate disaster risk in how we live, build and invest, which is setting humanity on a spiral of self-destruction,” said Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, who presented the report at the UN headquarters in New York. “We must turn our collective complacency to action. Together we can slow the rate of preventable disasters as we work to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals for everyone, everywhere.”
The report, dubbed “Our World at Risk: Transforming Governance for a Resilient Future,” found that the implementation of disaster risk reduction strategies, as called for in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, had reduced both the number of people impacted and killed by disasters in the last decade. However, the scale and intensity of disasters are increasing, with more people killed or affected by disasters in the last five years than in the previous five.
“Disasters can be prevented, but only if countries invest the time and resources to understand and reduce their risks,” said Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head of UNDRR. “By deliberately ignoring risk and failing to integrate it in decision making, the world is effectively bankrolling its own destruction. Critical sectors, from government to development and financial services, must urgently rethink how they perceive and address disaster risk.”
Disasters disproportionately impact developing countries, which lose an average of one percent of GDP a year to disasters, compared to 0.1-0.3 percent in developed countries, the report said. The highest cost is borne by the Asia-Pacific region, which loses an average 1.6 percent of GDP to disasters every year, while the poorest also suffer the most within developing countries.
Climate change has a huge footprint in the growing number of global disasters, the UN report said. It called for the acceleration of adaptation efforts made at COP26 by showcasing how policymakers can climate-proof development and investments. This includes reforming national budget planning to consider risk and uncertainty, while also reconfiguring legal and financial systems to incentivize risk reduction.
Adding to the long-term impacts of disasters is the lack of insurance to aid in recovery efforts to build back better. Since 1980, just 40 percent of disaster-related losses were insured while insurance coverage rates in developing countries were often below 10 percent, and sometimes close to zero, the report said.
GAR2022 was drafted by a group of experts from around the world as a reflection of the various areas of expertise required to understand and reduce complex risks. “This report should be a wake-up call that countries need to accelerate action across the Framework’s four priorities to stop the spiral of increasing disasters,” said Mizutori. “The good news is that human decisions are the largest contributors to disaster risk, so we have the power to substantially reduce the threats posed to humanity, and especially the most vulnerable among us.”