Page 30 - Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

climate change. The Least Developed Countries are similarly affected and the UN Office for Disaster
84
Risk Reduction estimates that the average annual losses in the LDCs in 2017 due to disasters were
8.5 per cent of their GDP.
85
Also at risk are the planet’s life-supporting eco-systems themselves. A comprehensive UN study has
86
found that ‘nearly one million species are at risk of becoming extinct within decades, while current
efforts to conserve the Earth’s resources will likely fail without radical action. Although the planet
already has specially designed ecosystems to heal itself, there is an urgent need to define how to
rapidly identify where the areas of highest concern are, and where the greatest opportunities for
restoration lie.’ 87

All this evidence shows that catastrophic global climate change is not an event waiting to happen
sometime in the future. It is the reality that the entire world is facing right now. It is, therefore,
imperative that countries take urgent and immediate action to address climate change. That is why the
decade starting 2020 has been called the ‘Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development
Goals’ by the UN Secretary General – one which ‘will be crucial for achieving a fair globalization,
boosting economic growth and building peaceful societies. And it will strive to generate the ambition,
innovation, financing and solutions needed to usher in an era of low-emission sustainable development.
Climate action will be both a priority and a driver of the Decade.’
88
The only way this can be achieved is by following the agreed-upon conventions and protocols of
international instruments such as the 2018 Kigali Amendment to the UNFCCC’s Montreal Protocol
and the Paris Agreement, the latter being the UN-coordinated response of Member States to the
issue of climate change. Any interventions that may help lessen the impact of this crisis must be
utilized, including the use of innovative digital technologies as part of countries’ climate change
response strategies. Boxes 2 and 3 provide further information on the Kigali Amendment and the
Paris Agreement.

There is also increased need for cities to invest in the development and implementation of vulnerability
and risk assessments for potential disaster mitigation, as part of local disaster risk reduction strategies
in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. The risks and vulnerabilities
89
assessed and planned for need not stem only from unforeseen or sudden natural disaster events.
Future inadequacy and/or unsuitability of water for human consumption is one example of a gradually
escalating vulnerability as identified under the implementation of the Sendai Framework. The
framework requires the following elements to be implemented in cities:
90 91
a) city infrastructures and systems available for resilience;
b) risk and vulnerability assessments;

c) financial (capital and operational) plans to address the risks and vulnerabilities; and
d) technical systems to implement the plans.

24