Climate Change And Development Consultation On Key Researchable Issues Sectoral Issues Section 2.3. Natural Disasters

Document begins: CLIMATE CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT CONSULTATION ON KEY RESEARCHABLE ISSUES SECTORAL ISSUES SECTION 2.3. NATURAL DISASTERS LAUREL MURRAY Saleemul Huq and Hannah Reid Climate Change Group International Institute for Environment and Development 3 Endsleigh Street, London WC1H 0DD, UK Tel: (+44 20) 7388 2117 Fax: (+44 20) 7388 2826 Email: saleemul.huq@iied.org hannah.reid@iied.org Climate Change and Natural Disasters The recent tsunami in South Asia was a tragic reminder of how vulnerable human society is to natural disasters. Extreme events such as droughts, floods, heat waves, tropical cyclones, and hurricanes can cause widespread damage and loss of life: devastating communities and destroying decades of development work. As the President of Honduras, Carlos Flores, stated after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, "[w]e lost in 72 hours what we have taken more than 50 years to build." Even industrialised countries with sophisticated prevention and response measures can face billions in recovery and reconstruction, with long-term socio-economic impacts. The development community has worked extensively to tackle the threat of natural disasters, concentrated in the field of disaster risk management. This section will briefly outline the projected changes in climate extremes, based largely on the work of the IPCC. Followed by a review of disaster risk ...