MANILA — As the world grapples with the devastating effects of climate change and extreme weather events, the United Nations (UN) admitted having difficulty in changing the public’s mindset to prepare for prevention rather than preparing for response and recovery.

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UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Mami Mizutori said while some countries are already making strides towards disaster preparedness and resilience, there is still more to be done in ensuring the impact of disasters are kept low after it happens.

“When you think of policies about disasters, most people still think about response and recovery because that’s what we need to do when a disaster strikes. But what we know is that’s not good enough anymore,” Mizutori said.

Financial capabilities are seen as one of the factors that affect a community or even a country’s preparedness as more funds are usually programmed towards disaster response, relief, rehabilitation and recovery.

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But Mizutori, citing research and evidence, explained that allotting $1 for prevention can actually save up to $15 in terms of response and recovery.

The shift in paradigm, she said, must happen not only to citizens but even more so to politicians who have the access to funds and ultimately, the power to make their communities safer.

“Even the most-bold and ambitious ones need to think about this. When it comes to a country with not enough resources the demands for tomorrow to feed people, to educate people, to build hospitals, to give medical care does need to come first.”

“In essence, we need to rethink how the international financial institute deal with this issue. In the national budget too, not many countries put reserves for provision for prevention. The Philippines does, but that’s not the norm yet for many countries,” Mizutori added.

The UN official said while the issues of limited financial resources is true for many countries, it is all the more necessary for the highest level of the leadership to prevent a void in investment for prevention and for the citizens to understand that such investments are for the best of their interest.

More extreme weather ahead

With the global mercury inching its way higher, the UN predicts a wave of even more extreme climate events in the coming years.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified a range of assumptions including economic growth, technology developments and lifestyle as some of the reasons behind the 1.5 degree warming above pre-industrial levels.

Experts have warned of more catastrophic events with irreversible effects, should this figure reach even higher.

“What our research found is that if we continue on this path and if we cannot achieve the 1.5 goal, we predict that by 2030 the number of disaster will rise to 1.5 medium to major disasters a day happening somewhere in the world.”

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“When you look at this global figure and when you take into consideration that Asia Pacific is the most disaster prone region in the world, we can say that this global prediction will impact this region,” Mizutori said.

In the Philippines, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Renato Solidum said that based on state weather bureau PAGASA’s forecasts, the number of typhoons that may batter the country will not increase but rather intensify.

“There will be changes in precipitation or rainfall patterns in many parts of the country. Hence, we really need to prepare for drought especially in the Southern Philippines. Indeed, climate change and even natural hazards and disaster risk reduction are important efforts that we need to do as a whole of society,” Solidum said.

This brings to fore the importance of not just decreasing emissions and mitigating climate risks but even more so looking at the unique and specific needs of groups and individuals.

Environment Secretary Toni Yulo Loyzaga explained that in the case of farmers, their needs to be able to quickly recover from disasters must be identified.

Knowing this earlier on will eventually identify necessary courses of action and required resources to actually prevent the disaster from happening.

“These type of tailor-made sub-national insurance products I think are way of transferring risk prior to a disaster actually happening. But should the hazard hit, the impact of that disaster will be mitigated by the resources they have already available or have invested in because they have such a product in their hands,” Loyzaga said.

Risk transfer, as she puts it, requires conditioning everyone’s minds into preparing for prevention more than response.

With the Asia Pacific Region, the Philippines in particular, contributing significantly less to emission and climate change but being the most vulnerable to its effects, the need for a coordinated response across many governments becomes all the more important.

Philippines to host conference on disaster risk reduction

On Friday, the Philippines said that it will host the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR) in 2024.

The APMCDRR is convened by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and will bring together global leaders to monitor, review and enhance cooperation for the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 at the regional level.

Mizutori said the conference will build on the outcomes of the midterm review of the Sendai Framework by focusing on priority issues including financing for disaster risk reduction, enhancing gender-responsive and inclusive risk governance as well as localization of disaster risk reduction efforts.

“These are areas where the Philippines can share examples of its achievements, especially around inclusiveness and strengthening of local resilience.”

The Philippines hosting the conference cannot be more apt especially since climate change is said to be on the government’s agenda.

“In the last two State of the National Addresses (SONA), the President has made very clear, his awareness of how climate change and other natural hazards impact our economic growth and development. In the last SONA, he actually said that climate change is actually going to be integrated in every government policy, action and program,” said Loyzaga.

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