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The objective of these guidelines is to assist development practitioners in the process of incorporating climate change concerns into development programmes, projects, policies and strategies.

This slide presentation introduces the latest draft guidance for integrating Disaster Risk Reduction into the Common Country Assessments / UN Development Framework.

This slide presentation introduces the UN Development Framework from a disasters and climate change perspective. UNDF collects empirical information concerning risks and needs and puts in place practical measures to reduce risk related to climatic hazards. Furthermore, the organization incorporates risk related to climatic hazards considerations in development and measures progress in efforts to reduce them.

This slide presentation introduces the UN reforms on Disaster Risk Reduction since 1997 and efforts therein to integrate it in the Common Country Assessments, and link it to Climate Change.

This document briefly summarizes the 2007 Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group meeting’s outcomes. It then identifies steps and products for each of the WG’s topics of interest to encourage commitment to implement useful action.

This activity report briefly summarizes the 2007 Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group meeting’s outcomes. It then identifies steps and products for each of the WG’s identified interests to encourage commitment to implement.

This analytical report highlights that the 29th session of the IPCC meeting (Geneva, 1-4 September 2008) agreed to hold a scoping workshop on the IPCC Special Report on Managing Extreme Events to Advance Adaptation proposed by Norway and the ISDR system with support from Luxembourg. The workshop was to be held in early 2009 and to recommend to the IPCC’s 30th session whether it should undertake the proposed report.

In this policy document ISDR underlines that to reduce the risk of extreme climate events, action is required on twin policies: to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change, and to reduce the vulnerability of societies to inevitable climate change impacts. The document promotes these messages to ensure the integration of disaster risk reduction into current policies as well as in the post-2012 climate change regime.

This policy document provides an overview of progress on the implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the Hyogo Framework for Action at the national, regional and international levels.

This analytical report explains how the growing concern that human activities may affect the climate system led to the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. The Panel assesses scientific, technical and socio-economic information, produces assessments based mainly on peer reviewed and published scientific/technical literature on climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. Its first assessment report served as the basis for the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which entered into force in 1994 and now includes 189 countries, known as “Parties” to the Convention.

This analytical report stresses that, given the urgency and the scale of the adaptation challenge, it is imperative to learn from long experience in managing— and reducing—the risk of extreme climate events, such as floods, droughts, storms and extreme temperatures. The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report recognises the opportunity to advance adaptation through the use of such policies and tools. In particular, it states that reducing vulnerability to current climatic variability can effectively reduce vulnerability to increased hazard risk associated with climate change.

This policy document draws upon efforts to track progress in the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters (Hyogo Framework). It summarizes reports prepared by over fifty national authorities designated with disaster risk reduction functions, focusing on the areas of risk assessment, early warning systems and sector specific risk reduction plans.

This policy document provides a set of suggested concrete actions in response to the Bali Action Plan’s call for enhanced action on adaptation through consideration of disaster risk reduction strategies, risk management and risk transfer mechanisms. It has been developed in consultation with a number of UN and international organizations concerned with disaster risk reduction and humanitarian response.

This analytical report provides a brief description of DRR and then reviews a selection of tools that can provide an effective framework for combining the knowledge and experiences from the disaster management and climate change communities to build adaptive capacity.

This technical document addresses the climate-related stresses and shocks already prominently present in the lives of many of the world’s people, particularly in the lives of the poor. Events such as droughts, floods and storms are often terrible experiences for those affected: they cause great loss of life, destroy countless livelihoods and leave millions of people devastated.

The analytical report describes the Bali Action Plan, adopted by government delegations during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali. The Plan provides the roadmap towards a new international climate change agreement to be concluded by 2009, and that will ultimately lead to a post-2012 international agreement on climate change.

This analytical report presents the efforts of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Working Group on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction and shows that they are soundly aligned with the United Nations’ Secretary-General’s messages on climate change: they also contribute to UN efforts for a coordinated, systemwide approach to tackling climate change.

This activity report includes the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005-2015) to promote a strategic and systematic approach to reducing vulnerabilities and risks to hazards. Disaster loss is on the rise with grave consequences for the survival, dignity and livelihood of individuals, particularly the poor, and hard-won development gains. Disaster risk is increasingly of global concern and its impact and actions in one region can have an impact on risks in another, and vice versa.

This document underlines that climate change and disaster risk reduction are closely linked. More extreme weather events in future are likely to increase the number and scale of disasters, while at the same time, the existing methods and tools of disaster risk reduction provide powerful capacities for adaptation to climate change.

The newsletter covers the oft-overlooked social dimensions of climate change, including issues related to gender, labour and youth. The purpose is to provide a platform during COP15 for the opinions of various stakeholders.