Climate Catastrophes have claimed more than 410,000 lives in the last Decade

The Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, has requested this Monday an urgent increase in financing to adapt to climate change and catastrophic events such as droughts, floods and rising sea levels, events that have killed more than 410,000 people in the last decade.”Adaptation cannot be the forgotten half of the climate equation,” said Guterres in an intervention during the Climate Adaptation Summit held virtually.

The UN head has specified that the need is even “more urgent” in developing countries, which require about 70,000 million dollars (more than 57.7 million euros) to comply with their adaptation plans against disasters climatic.

In addition, this figure could rise to 300 billion dollars (more than 247 million euros) in 2030, according to the UN Environment Program.

In doing so, Guterres has requested that 50 per cent of the total share of climate finance provided by all developed countries and multilateral development banks be allocated specifically to adaptation and resilience.

“I urge all donors and multilateral development banks to commit to this goal before COP26 and meet it by at least 2024,” he said, referring to the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention. Nations Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to be held in November in Glasgow.

Guterres also stressed the importance of early warning systems and risk-based decision making. “With just 24 hours’ notice of an approaching storm or heat wave, damage can be reduced by 30 percent,” he explained, demanding joint work with the aim of guaranteeing global coverage with warning systems. early that reduce human and material losses.

In this context, the UN Secretary-General has also stressed that budget allocations and investment decisions must take into account the reality of climate change.

“Climate risk must be integrated into all development processes, particularly for infrastructure,” he said, while pointing out the need to expand financial instruments triggered by existing catastrophes, such as bonds or investments to support economies affected by disasters.

The UN chief has also called for facilitating access to public financing, especially for the most vulnerable countries, and expanding debt relief initiatives.

Precisely, least developed countries and small island developing states account for only 14 and 2 per cent, respectively, of total climate finance flows, but they bear the most risks.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, there have been more than 11,000 disasters due to weather, climate and water hazards in the past 50 years at a cost of some US $ 3.6 trillion.