Human cost of disasters 2000-2019

We are twenty years into this new century, and disaster risk is taking on new shapes and sizes with every passing year. Disasters have never waited their turn, and increasingly risk is interconnected. Risk drivers and con-sequences are multiplying and cascading, colliding in unanticipated ways. We must have a commen-surate systemic response with national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction fit for purpose. Political commitment, strategies and scenario planning have never been more important for disaster risk management.While this report focuses primarily on the staggering rise in climate-related disasters over the last twenty years, it is also a commentary on the need to strengthen disaster risk governance for the en-tire range of natural hazards and man-made hazards including related environmental, technological and biological hazards and risks.In the short-term, disaster management agencies have succeeded in saving many lives through im-proved preparedness and the dedication of staff and volunteers. But the odds continue to be stacked against them in particular by industrial nations that are failing miserably on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to levels commensurate with the desired goal of keeping global warming at 1.5C as set out in the Paris Agreement.At the same time, almost all nations failed to prepare appropriately to prevent the wave of death and illness unleashed across the globe by the COVID-19 pandemic despite many urgings to do so from a plethora of experts including WHO, UNDRR and others.