27 June 2023 (Online)
Upon invitation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Senior Researcher Dr Gerry Potutan of ADRC participated as panelist in the Online DRR Talk on the theme, "APEC in an Increasingly Complex Disaster Landscape: Preparing Asia-Pacific Economies for Extreme Conditions" on 27 June 2023. The panel tackled concerns of extreme weather events and the widespread impacts of climate change to communities across the Asia-Pacific region.
At the outset, all panelists recognized the contributions of the APEC Disaster Risk Reduction Framework in advancing climate resilience through shared-interventions, such as better risk mapping strategies, expanded regional and global investment in early warning systems, innovation in resilient infrastructure, and nature-based solutions.
ADRC shared related activities, including: the advanced climate change impact projection study, the GLIDE number system, and the training program on "developing local DRR strategies" where information on emerging climate risks are integrated. ADRC also mentioned some initiatives in Japan that the government, the private sector, and the communities are promoting to proactively adapt to climate change risks. Among those mentioned were: 1) Japan International Public-Private Association for Disaster Risk Reduction (JIPAD), where private companies promote their DRR/CCA technologies; 2) National Resilience Promotion, an initiative that contributes in preventing and mitigating disasters; 3) Joint Strategy between the Cabinet Office (Disaster Management) and Ministry of Environment to mainstream synergy between Climate Action and DRR; 4) Amendments of Basic Act on Disaster Management highlighting the importance of the Local Disaster Management Plans to reflect lessons from local conditions in updating the policies related to DRR-CCA; and 5) Public-Private Partnerships in promoting innovative early warning tools (e.g., SPECTEE that utilizes artificial intelligences or "AI").
All these initiatives are aimed at enhancing synergy in implementing large-scale disaster countermeasures to minimize silos among related agencies, providing practical knowledge and skills of people at the community level, and applying new tools and technologies to proactively reduce disaster risks as well as adapt to the emerging climate risks.
2023/07/04 15:00