This communiqué is a result of the forum on Climate Smart Disaster Risk Reduction on October 26, 2009 in Stockholm, Sweden, organized by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), the World Bank, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), with the participation of 100 country representatives. During the forum participants acknowledged the intersection between development, climate change, and disaster risk, affirming that sustainable development is not possible without adequately addressing how climate change produces extreme weather events that threaten development gains. So while it calls for mitigation to prevent the worst possible climate outcomes and associated disaster scenarios, it also supports adaptation efforts to address the risks that are simply unavoidable. This will involve identifying good disaster risk reduction (DRR) practices that take into account climate risks, and incorporating them into the development projects supported by these agencies. In order to successfully attain these objectives, the agencies believe that it is necessary to build capacity for better risk management at all levels through the active engagement of a wide range of stakeholders. This means encouraging greater private sector involvement in adaptation to climate change. Many of the innovative risk management techniques and strategies established within the corporate environment may prove useful in addressing climate-related disaster risks. Emphasis is also placed on reinforcing local efforts to decrease disaster risks associated with climate change by facilitating local access to DRR and climate change adaptation (CCA) resources developed within regional and transnational cooperative networks focused on these policy areas.
General Disaster Risk Management