UN issues disaster risk warning for Asia-Pacific

The risk of natural catastrophe in Asia-Pacific is outpacing resilience and could push those in the most disaster-prone areas into poverty unless action is taken, according to a recent report from a United Nations regional commission.

The report from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) urges countries to explore ways to close the protection gap in a region more affected than any other by natural catastrophes, but with the least capacity to prepare or respond to these effects, including the adoption of insurance which remains perilously low in many areas.

In addition to calling for more use of critical warning systems and greater risk education, the report also calls for more innovative use of risk financing to protect people’s livelihoods.

“Disasters can very quickly strip poor people of their livelihoods, bringing deeply disruptive impacts that push them back into absolute poverty or trap them in an intergenerational transmission of poverty,” said Shamshad Akhtar, ESCAP executive secretary, as she launched the report in Bangkok this week.

Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2017 shows that between 2000 and 2015, the low- and lower-middle-income countries in the region experienced almost 15 times more disaster deaths in comparison to the region’s high-income countries.

Last year, floods, storms and extreme temperatures killed 4,987 people and affected some 34.5 million, according to the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2017. And in recent months, the region has seen Typhoon Hato cause widespread damage in Hong Kong, China and Macau, while torrential monsoon rains in Bangladesh, India and Nepal claimed more than 900 lives and affected another 41 million people.

The ESCAP report also refers to the economic effects of disaster risk. Its research indicates that between 2015 and 2030, 40% of global economic losses from disasters will be in Asia and the Pacific, while the region accounts for about 36% of global gross domestic product (GDP).

Japan and China are likely to suffer the largest economic losses but the greatest burden of the losses as a proportion of GDP will be borne by small, island, developing states with average annual losses close to 4% of their GDP. The least developed countries, in comparison, will have annual losses of about 2.5% of GDP.

The ESCAP report also states that the effects of climate change are likely to exacerbate disaster risk and increase both the frequency and destructive potential of future natural disasters.

The report cites more life-threatening heatwaves, worsening floods and droughts, more frequent and powerful tropical cyclones, and heavier monsoon rains in east Asia and India.

Ms Akhtar said that action on early warning systems is critical and called for cost-effective financing, which is needed to decrease the existing resilience gaps.

“The absence of an institutionalised insurance culture and adequate post-disaster financing threaten our extraordinary economic and developmental achievements. Promoting more, and deeper, collaboration among countries in the region on disaster risk financing will be an ESCAP priority,” she added.