To achieve better management of the avoidable

Making substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions has ceased to be simply an imperative, it became a moral obligation for us all, not only for the sake of future generations but also for those on the ground who are already suffering the first consequences of climate change.

We are committed to this goal and will be advocating strongly in favour of it at the World Climate Chagne Conference, which is being held in Paris since November 30.

The Paris Agreement will be a first essential step towards reducing emissions as well as protecting these populations.

It will need to be implemented through actions, with immediate effect, in order to meet the immense challenge that we are already facing, namely to address the impact of climate change.

Disaster risk reduction measures urgently need to be implemented, as per the recommendations of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, adopted in Japan in March last year, if we are to successfully address the negative effects of climate change.

The drought that hit the United States, provoking numerous fires all across California, the heatwave that killed over 2,500 people in India and hundreds more in Pakistan, with temperatures approaching 50oC, and the cyclones that devastated the Caribbean this autumn are unfortunately just a preview of what inevitably lies ahead.

Not to mention other less predictable but no less alarming phenomena, which go to make up what certain experts are now calling “the new normal”, such as the recent torrential rainfall in France which flooded a number of towns on the Riviera in a matter of hours, killing more than 20 residents; or in Japan, where abnormally heavy rainfall obliged over 100,000 people to abandon their houses; or indeed in the Philippines, when Typhoon Haiyan caused nothing short of a tsunami, with waves over five metres high.

From now on, all disaster risk management policies must take due account of these new phenomena, including the known effects of El Niño and the rather less well-understood effects of the accelerated melting of the Antarctic ice cap.

Since the tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, many countries have now equipped themselves with multi-hazard early warning systems and are now better prepared for climate change. 

The implementation of early warning systems is one hazard reduction measure that has proven its worth and which has contributed considerably to reducing the death toll associated with climate-related disasters in a number of countries over the last 10 years. The large-scale deployment of such systems is one of the seven targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

But there is inequality here too: many communities, including those in the front line when it comes to rising water or the violence of hurricanes, are not yet equipped with effective warning systems able to protect them.

The French early warning systems initiative CREWS was announced on December 1 in Paris.

Supported by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the World Meteorological Organisation and the World Bank, this initiative will give small developing island states and least developed countries priority assistance in building their capacity to improve their warning systems and reduce their vulnerability to climatic hazards.

The CREWS initiative was launched by the French foreign affairs minister, Laurent Fabius, at the third international conference on risk reduction and was endorsed by the G-7 nations. It will help hundreds of communities under threat to better protect themselves.

Early warning systems are not the only instruments available to reduce the risks of climate-related disasters, and we are far from helpless in the face of increasing climate-related phenomena; we know what needs to be done and we have solutions to mitigate their effects.

Land-use planning, investment in durable infrastructure, ecosystem protection and poverty reduction policies all potentially serve to reduce the impact of climate change.

We now have enough knowledge, know how and expertise not only to manage climatic effects to a significant degree but also to avoid creating new risks in the long term.

And this is surely no accident: six of the 17 new sustainable development goals relate directly to the implementation of risk reduction policies.

Paris is one necessary step, but not the only one, and we would like our children to be able to live in a more resilient and sustainable world of tomorrow.

We need more political will, greater commitment from the private sector and increased global awareness from the whole of civil society in order to achieve that which is still possible, namely better management of the avoidable.

Margareta Wahlström is special representative of the secretary general to the United Nations for disaster risk reduction. Annick Girardin is minister of state for development and Francophony. They contributed this article to The Jordan Times.