Japan hosted a United Nations conference on Saturday (March 14) and pledged $4 billion towards a new plan to reduce disaster risk.
Addressing the conference in the north-eastern city of Sendai, United Nations Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-Moon said that this was the point to determine where to go next.
“This is our first stop on our journey to a new future. To put our people of the world and this world on a sustainable path,” Ban told delegates at the conference, which around 20 heads of state, including Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, were expected to attend.
The human and economic cost of natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes fell sharply worldwide last year, helped by improved early warning systems, one of the world’s largest reinsurer Munich Re said last month.
The number of people killed fell to 7,700 in 2014 from 21,000 the year before, while the economic cost of natural catastrophes dropped to $110 billion from $140 billion, Munich Re said in its annual review of disasters.
However, the U.N. Global Assessment Report of Disaster Risk Reduction, released ahead of theSendai conference, found that disasters are expected to cost the global community up to $300 billion in annual losses in the coming decades.
The new agreement will focus on displacement of populations by disasters such as earthquakes, floods and drought, which the previous plan, Hyogo Framework for Action, did not address.
The delegates are expected to decide on a new plan by Wednesday (March 18), to be known as the Sendai agreement.
The Japanese government said it would pledge $4 billion in the next four years towards the agreement and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japan would look to share its technology.
“Disaster risk reduction is something I think that is a mutual effort. To return the help we have had, Japan would like to contribute to the international community with our knowledge and technology,” Abe said.
By 2015, 86 countries had set up formal national bodies to co-ordinate disaster risk reduction efforts, and 121 countries had enacted legislation to support policy to reduce disaster risk, according to the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The conference took place as a powerful cyclone hit the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu on Saturday. Aid officials said the storm may be unprecedented in the island’s history and could be one of the worst natural disasters the Pacific region has ever seen, hitting Papua New Guineaand the Solomon Islands before reaching Vanuatu late on Friday (March 13).
Reuters/TV Tokyo
