IDRLF 2022

Overview

The Role of Cities in Reducing Complex Risk

Governments are on the ‘frontline of opportunity’ in this era of Climate Emergency and a third year of the global COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the biggest dividend in avoided future disaster losses can be reaped at the level of municipalities.

The evidence is clear: those governments, including local, that invest to better understand, communicate, and manage their climate and disaster risk, are the ones that most effectively protect the lives and livelihoods of their citizens as well as their infrastructure systems and assets.

Incheon Metropolitan City has a strong track record in climate and disaster resilience both within Korea, the wider Asia region, and indeed globally.

More than 90% of all disasters are now related to climate change and extreme weather events. Those countries and cities that either take no action or are slow to act most probably will experience escalating disaster risk and losses. Climate change is generating more powerful storms, exacerbating coastal flooding, causing more deadly heatwaves, and prompting greater water shortages and more protracted drought. It is amplifying disaster losses, both in terms of human lives and livelihoods as well as the overall economy. And these losses are increasingly concentrated in urban areas.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety of the Republic of Korea and Incheon Metropolitan City, as a Resilience Hub of the United Nations convened Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) global initiative, are reaching out to the leaders of the Northeast Asia and ASEAN region to scale up action on climate and disaster risk reduction.

The International Disaster Resilience Leaders Forum Incheon 2022 is convened to:

• Capture and share practical experience of ‘disaster resilience in action’ including technology for disaster risk reduction
• Consolidate policy recommendations based on this experience to scale up the number of local governments taking effective action to prevent and reduce disaster risk
• Ensure the region’s experience positively influences the global development policy agenda

In achieving these objectives, the International Disaster Resilience Leaders Forum Incheon 2022 will contribute to scaling up the number of governments, including local, that invest in a resilient future.

Investing in resilience will translate into significant and tangible development gains. In the face of escalating hazards, it will mean tens of millions of citizens living safely and remaining economically active. It will mean the critical infrastructure systems and services - including roads, bridges, power and water supplies, schools, and hospitals - remain open and functioning. It will mean utilizing technology to achieve resilience.

The more governments do now in terms of climate and disaster resilience, the less they will suffer - and the less they will pay - in the future.

Reducing the impact of disasters keeps people out of poverty, protects hard-earned development gains, and enables municipalities to become more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.