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Norway has signed an agreement with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on support for efforts to enhance preparedness and disaster risk reduction in developing countries. Norway will provide NOK 120 million in support for the period 2022–2025.

The agreement was signed in Oslo by Minister of International Development Anne Beathe Tvinnereim and Head of UNDRR Mami Mizutori on 16 June.

‘The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in February clearly indicates that efforts to prevent the adverse impacts of climate change need to be intensified. It is the poorest countries and small island developing states that are being hardest hit. Norway is increasing its support for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction,’ said Ms Tvinnereim.

Doubling Norway’s climate finance

At last year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26), the Norwegian Government pledged to double Norway’s climate finance by 2026. This includes tripling Norway’s support for climate change adaptation.

UNDRR is the UN focal point for disaster risk reduction. It coordinates UN disaster risk reduction strategies and programmes and global efforts to increase resilience to disasters.

The funding provided by Norway will be used to support the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 in developing countries that are vulnerable to climate change.

‘The goal is to substantially reduce disaster risk and the loss of life, and increase resilience to extreme events to reduce the risk of people losing their livelihoods and communities being destroyed,’ Ms Tvinnereim said.

Strengthening countries’ own capacity

These efforts include helping the least developed countries and small island developing states to incorporate climate change adaptation and climate-related information into their disaster risk reduction plans, and to include risk assessments in their national climate change adaptation plans. This also entails strengthening the capacity of these countries to collect and analyse data for assessing their own risk and deciding which measures to implement.

‘UNDRR has, for example, developed a tool for planning and following up disaster risk reduction efforts. This is now being used by the municipal authorities of Makati in the Philippines, and is helping them to identify investments and measures that should be given priority,’ Ms Tvinnereim said.