Putting the global extremes and disasters in the context of the IPCC special report on managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation (SREX)

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Balgis Osman-Elasha

African Development Bank, Tunisia

: Expert Opin Environ Biol

Abstract

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SREX responds to the need to address the gap in information related to climate extremes. The report explores interactions between disasters and development and clearly demonstrates how the exposure to extremes and vulnerability to climate change can hinder development efforts. The Report provides for the first time the scientific evidence, with decision-relevant information demonstrating that extreme events which used to occur infrequently and perceived today as abnormal will be tomorrow’s ‘normal’ weather. Moreover, it emphasizes the need for much smarter development and economic policies that consider managing disaster risk as a core component of sustainable development. It points out that high levels of vulnerability, combined with more severe and frequent weather and climate extremes, may result in some places, such as coastal cities, becoming increasingly uninhabitable. A number of current observations around the globe support the findings of the report. For example, the United Nations reported that the year 2011 was the costliest year in history for catastrophes, highlighting that the economic losses from natural disasters, including earthquakes, storms and floods, amounted to about $366 billion. The drought in the Horn of Africa in 2010-2011, caused what was considered as the worst humanitarian crisis in decades. SREX has also examined how human responses to these events and the consequent disasters could contribute to adaptation objectives, and how adaptation to climate change could become better integrated with Disasters Risk Management (DRM) practice. The presentation aims at putting the SREX report in the context of existing and emerging global disasters.

Biography

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Balgis Osman-Elasha is a Climate Change Expert at the Compliance and Safe Guards Division of the African Development Bank (AfDB). She holds a PhD in Forestry Science, Master in Environmental Science and a Bachelor of Science (BSc) with Honour in Forestry and Agriculture. She has more than 17 years’ experience in different climate change issues with focus on vulnerability and adaptation assessment. Her research focuses on Human Dimension of Global Environmental Changes and implications on sustainable development. She has served as a Lead Author in a number of the IPCC Assessment Reports.

Email: b.osman-elasha@afdb.org