Climate Change will worsen Impact of Disasters, warn Aid Agencies

Climate change will worsen the impact of disasters on millions of the world's most vulnerable people unless more urgent preventative action is taken by governments, the UN 3rd World Conference on Disaster Reduction will hear this week.

A coalition of relief and development agencies including Tearfund and Christian Aid will gather for the conference in Geneva, Switzerland, from 5 to 7 June as G8 leaders meet in Germany to debate global climate change.

The coalition will tell 600 delegates that unsustainable development is causing climate change, which in turn is increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters. They will also urge governments to do more to assist the growing numbers of people affected by them.

The aid agencies argue that not enough progress has been made in boosting vulnerable communities' and countries' resilience to disasters since the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Kobe, Japan, in 2005, which agreed the 'Hyogo Framework for Action, 2005-2015'.

The NGOs, which also include Action Aid, Practical Action and Plan, said ahead of the conference: "With G8 leaders meeting a day's drive up the road in Heiligendamm, we have a rare opportunity to simultaneously confront politicians from those same G8 countries, and many others, to take more action to reduce disaster risk and vulnerability faced by millions of people around the world.

"Governments - whether at the G8 debating global temperatures, or at the UN discussing disasters - have a moral obligation to take tough and long-lasting action this week."

Whilst progress has been made at the macro policy level, this has not yet translated into building the resilience of communities to disasters at the scale required to address the size of the problem, the aid agencies warned.

They point to what they call a "failure" by developed nations to improve the access of developing nations to sufficient funding and technical assistance in order to adapt to climate change.

They also criticise the "continued weak co-operation" and "lack of joint actions" between governments and local communities, and a "failure" to develop clear targets and benchmarks at the local level in support of adaptation to climate change.

Speaking for the coalition, Tearfund's Marcus Oxley said: "This conference is a unique opportunity for governments to make a lasting difference.

"While the aid agencies will continue to make the most of the resources they have available, much more can be achieved if governments implement the Hyogo Framework for Action drawn up two years ago in Kobe.

"But time is ticking away if the Hyogo Framework is to be achieved by 2015."