The G20, under India’s Presidency, has endorsed a new working group on disaster risk reduction. This makes it well-positioned to prioritize disaster risk financing to achieve the targets set by the Sendai Framework for 2030. Recent years have seen an increase in natural and human-made catastrophes across the globe. The 2021-22 Human Development Report shows that disasters do not merely exacerbate poverty and thwart development but also generate social polarisation across nations and communities.

The lack of competent financial risk management and insurance has provided a fertile breeding ground for these risks to proliferate and intensify, wreaking havoc on various aspects of society and the economy. Annual disaster losses account for a significant share of GDP in many low-income economies. To manage these risks, financial strategies must be developed.

The G20’s new Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group (DRRWG) has recognized the importance of prioritizing disaster risk financing to address these pressing issues. This will focus on their second meeting in Mumbai in the last week of May. By emphasizing the importance of disaster risk financing, the G20 can help governments worldwide to manage risk more effectively and ensure sustainable development.

India’s Planning to Combat Heatwave Crisis ‘Most advanced’: Study

The humid heatwave in parts of Asia, including India, is at least 30 times more likely due to the deadly effects of climate change caused by human activity, according to rapid attribution analysis by an international team of leading climate scientists as part of the World Weather Attribution group. 

The study noted the record-high temperatures experienced in the last two weeks of April 2023 in parts of India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Laos. 

It pointed out that extreme humid heat in South and Southeast Asia in April 2023, largely driven by climate change, is detrimental to vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. The study also highlighted a range of solutions to heat-related harms from the individual to the regional levels respectively.

They are currently implemented as patchwork, to various degrees, across the countries studied, with India having the most advanced heatwave planning, it said.

“Heat-related fatalities have decreased in regions where heat action plans have been in place, e.g. in the city of Ahmedabad and the region of Odisha in India,” the study said in its summary of findings. However, it added that these solutions often need to be more in reach for the most vulnerable, highlighting the need to improve vulnerability assessments and design interventions that account for group-specific needs.       

Source: wionews.com