Download Holmes 2007 Human Security and Climate Change

Under-Secretary-General John Holmes’ remarks at
Climate Change “From the perspective of human security”
Tuesday, 31 July 2007, 13:15 to 14:45
Conference Room 6, United Nations Headquarters
HUMAN SECURITY AND DISASTER REDUCTION

Human Security is a fundamentally important concept and one with which my
office is very closely associated as the Trust Fund for Human Security sits within
OCHA. Human Security looks at the root causes of the vulnerabilities of
individuals and the connections between environmental, development and
population stresses that are often intensified by other threats like conflict, poverty,
challenges to food security, and risks such as poor housing in highly vulnerable
areas.

It has become obvious that climate change is the biggest threat the planet faces,
especially to the poorest and the most vulnerable among us. Climate change, and
the natural hazards and extreme weather events that are associated with it, are not
some distant, future threat. The threat to human security is here, it’s real, and it’s
today.

While it is difficult to link any single event to climate change, the trend line is
clear. Earlier today in the General Assembly, many of you heard about the
dramatic environmental and economic effects of a 2 degree change in the
Caribbean. In other parts of the world, climate change means that scarce resources
are causing increased shortages, tensions and potential for conflict.

Indeed, more people are threatened by natural hazards and extreme weather than
at any time in history. Over the past 30 years, the number of disasters triggered by
natural hazards - storms, floods and droughts - has already increased threefold.
The number of people affected has roughly doubled every ten years.

Last year, 134 million people suffered from natural hazards that cost thousands
and thousands of lives as well as $35 billion in damages. We know that disasters
can destroy decades of development literally overnight.

Unlike the polar bears floating on ice floes in the arctic, we know exactly what is
happening to us and it is within our power to do something about it. We have to
make our communities more resilient, and to reduce our exposure to climaterelated risks. Luckily, disaster reduction policies and tools already exist and are
readily available for use as climate change adaptation measures.

We need to reduce the vulnerability of communities to natural hazards, through
strengthened flood management systems, early warning and evacuation systems,
sound building codes, environmental management of risk prone areas, education
programmes and community-based risk management programs.

It means planting mangrove forests on exposed coastlines. It means educating
school children and communities on what to do when a hurricane or torrential
flood hits. It means putting together political decision-making with scientific
knowledge. It means preparing now for a more unpredictable future.

These risk-reducing policies and practices are not necessarily expensive and they
are also cost-effective – not only do they save lives, they also save livelihoods and
assets, and so help to safeguard development investments and the achievements of
the Millennium Development Goals.

There have been studies that show that every one dollar invested in disaster
reduction saves 4 to 7 in the long run. Bangladesh has managed a truly
remarkably reduction in the number of deaths from typhoons without spending
billions and billions. Another example that shows the value of disaster reduction
measures is the hurricane that hit the island of Hispaniola in 2004, killing fewer
than 10 in the Dominican Republic, but more than 3000 in Haiti where
deforestation is rife. A final illustration of the value of these measures is the
famous one from the Indonesian island of Simelue, where traditional knowledge
told people to run to the hills when they saw the waters recede. Far fewer lives
were lost there than in neighboring Aceh.

To be able to implement these measures on a broad scale, we need a multistakeholder strategy. The basis for action by the international community is The
Hyogo Framework for Action, which was endorsed by 168 countries in Kobe,
Japan in the aftermath of the tsunami in January 2005. The Hyogo Framework
provides us with a common and comprehensive roadmap for taking action today
to be better prepared for natural hazards and to reduce the risks of disasters
tomorrow. ISDR provides the multi-stakeholder framework for us to do this.

I would like to take just a few moments to talk about the Global Platform for
Disaster Risk Reduction that took place in June in Geneva. It was remarkable in
terms of the levels of enthusiasm and attendance as well as for the ideas it
produced. With over 1100 participants and 120 governments, The Global
Platform restated its commitment to the implementation of Hyogo Framework for
Action, and provided many examples of good practices to be shared. It also took
up the issue of megacities. 8 of the world’s 10 biggest cities are in areas prone to
earthquakes, and six of them are near coasts. The risk of a huge calamity is real.

The only disappointments from the meeting were the levels of political and media
interest. In my opinion, the lack of a recent tsunami or Pakistan earthquake has
allowed people to become complacent again.

A final point to make is that just as the link between climate change and disaster
reduction is clear, the Hyogo Framework and the tools of disaster risk reduction
are also a natural complement to the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Used together, the Hyogo Framework and the Framework Convention will enable
us to respond and adapt more effectively to the short term and the long term
threats climate change poses to human security. As mentioned earlier, Japan has a
very important role to play in this linkage. I hope disaster reduction is not only on
the agenda of this year’s 24 September event, but also for the TICAD IV
Conference in Japan in 2008 and next year’s G8 Summit in Hokkaido.