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Climate-related risks and extreme events
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Promoting understanding of impacts of, and vulnerability to, climate change, current and future
climate variability and extreme events, and the implications for sustainable development.
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Climate related risks are created by a range of hazards. Some are slow in their onset (such as
changes in temperature and precipitation leading to droughts, or agricultural losses), while others
happen more suddenly (such as tropical storms and floods). It is now widely recognised that
climate-related impacts are not just a future threat. Furthermore, past and current experiences in
dealing with climate variability and extreme events, irrespective of attribution to climate change,
hold valuable lessons for reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience for future climate-related
adverse impacts.
A strong body of experience in dealing with climate-related risks already exists in the disaster risk
reduction community. Also, the global disaster management community, as well as sectoral communities,
are increasingly focusing their efforts on building resilience into investments and development.
However, gaps in knowledge still exist and, therefore, activities under this area of work are
undertaken in line with the objective of promoting understanding of impacts of, and
vulnerability to, climate change, current and future climate variability and extreme events, and the
implications for sustainable development.
Activities and deliverables under the second phase (2008-2010) include:
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 Technical paper
on physical and socio-economic trends in climate-related risks and extreme events in the context of
their implications for sustainable development (requested by the SBSTA before its twenty-ninth
session, December 2008). The SBSTA suggested that this paper could also provide valuable input into
the workshop on risk management and risk reduction strategies to be held during AWG-LCA_4 (December 2008).
Activities and deliverables under the first phase (up to June 2008) included:
- Submissions from Parties and relevant organizations
- Workshop to be held before SBSTA 27
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Work in the area of climate-related risks and extreme events can contribute to efforts by Parties
and organizations to:
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- Enhance knowledge of, and capacity to understand, assess and predict, current and future climate
variability, trends in long-term climate change, the occurrence and scale of extreme events, and
their impacts;
- Enhance capacity to understand vulnerability to, and to use information on, climate change,
current and future climate variability and extreme events, and their impacts, including use of this
information to analyse these impacts; and capacity to assess climate related risks, impact
thresholds, trends, and implications for sustainable development;
- Share and use information on, and analysis of, experiences in climate risk assessment and
management;
- Promote the use of tools and systems for these purposes.
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Details of activities and deliverables under the first phase
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Submissions
The SBSTA invited Parties and relevant organizations to submit to the secretariat, by 23
February 2007, information on their relevant programmes, activities and views on the
following issues:
- Experience with assessment and management of current and future climate-related risks and
impacts, including those related to extreme events and in specific sectors
- Ability, gaps, needs, opportunities, barriers and constraints to predicting climate
variability, impacts and extreme events across regions and hazards
- Contribution of traditional knowledge to understanding and managing climate-related risks
- Implications for sustainable development in relation to the issues above
- Promoting understanding of impacts of, and vulnerability to, climate change
Submissions were received from twelve Parties and Party groups (Argentina,
Australia, India, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United States of
America and Uzbekistan as well as from Germany on behalf of the European Community
and its Member States and AOSIS). Nine organizations also made
submissions (FAO, ISDR, WMO, IFRC, OECD, CARE Canada, Practical Action, German Committee for
Disaster Reduction and the Global Fire Monitoring Center). The submissions can be downloaded
below.
FCCC/SBSTA/2007/MISC.4
and
Add.1 and
Add.2
Relevant programmes, activities and views on the issues relating to climate related risks and
extreme events. Submissions from Parties
FCCC/SBSTA/2007/MISC.5
Relevant programmes, activities and views on the issues relating to climate related risks and
extreme events. Submissions from relevant organizations.
Workshop
The SBSTA requested the secretariat, under the guidance of the Chair of the SBSTA, to
organize, before its twenty-seventh session, a workshop with the participation of Parties,
experts and relevant organizations and institutions on the issues, information and
submissions referred to in the above submissions. It further requested the secretariat to
prepare a report on the workshop to be made available to the SBSTA by its twenty-seventh
session.
The workshop on climate related risks and extreme events took place in Cairo, Egypt from 18
to 20 June 2007. The agenda, presentations and results from the workshop are available
on the Cairo workshop
page.
The workshop report is contained in document FCCC/SBSTA/2007/7.
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Progress on implementation
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Workshop
on climate-related risks and extreme events Cairo, Egypt, 18-20 June 2007
Call
for Action
on climate-related risks and extreme events and on adaptation planning and practices
(climate-related risks and extreme events)
Leaflet (966
kB)
on climate-related risks and extreme events
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