The Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Robert Glasser, on Thursday,
said disasters associated with slow processes of environmental change demonstrate the growing importance of climate change as a driver of disaster risk.
Glasser cited new figures in a UN-backed report, entitled: “The Global Report on Internal Displacement,’’ which revealed that over 19 million people in 2015 were forced from their homes by natural hazards.
He said in a statement that internal displacement was a reliable barometer of the scale of humanitarian needs around the globe.
He added that in 2015, there were 27.8 million displacements associated with conflicts, violence and disasters in 127 countries, including 19.2 million forced by natural hazards.
“The figure goes to the heart of the humanitarian crisis now facing the world and which will be discussed at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul,’’ Glasser said.
However, the summit in Istanbul would be convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon 10 days from now.
“Majority of displacements caused by natural hazards were caused by extreme weather events during a year which saw a record number of droughts, widespread flooding and 90 major tropical storms,’’ Glasser said.
He noted that much of this was fuelled by a very strong El Nino occurring in the context of increasing climate change.
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, weather-related hazards resulted in 14.7 million displacements.
“Our concern must be to develop better capacity to manage disaster risk at local level to avoid displacement on this scale.
“That means improving early warnings, providing low cost housing in safe locations and doing all we can to reduce the numbers of people affected by disasters.
“All these were agreed by UN member states when they adopted the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015,’’ he said.
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is the global plan for reducing disaster risk and disaster losses adopted by UN member states at a World Conference in Sendai, Japan, in 2015.
However it set targets for reducing disaster related mortality, numbers of people affected, damage to critical infrastructure and economic losses.
The Global Report on Internal Displacement was produced by the Norwegian Refugee Council.