This is a brief report on COP 21 and G7 Ise-Shima Summit in a series of Message from the President on high level meetings on global issues, following the messages of May 2015 on 3rd World Conference on DRR and November 2015 on Summit on Sustainable Development.
The year 2015 marked the dawn of a new era for sustainable development with the adoption of historic decisions on global issues at the three highest level meetings*:
- 3rd WCDRR (March, Sendai) : Sendai Framework for DRR
- Summit on Sustainable Development (Sept. NY): Sustainable Development Goals
- COP 21 (December, Paris): Paris Agreement
To be noted here is that, while meetings in the past addressed the global issues separately from each other, the three meetings in 2015 addressed the issues integratedly, recognizing that these global issues were interlinking in nature and mutually supportive approaches were to be taken to address effectively for the common aim towards overall sustainable development in the future. Ref. Annex 1.(PDF: 80.5KB)
COP 21 adopted Paris Agreement, which represents a historic turning point for the global climate change measures** and aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change. To be noted from DRR view point is that it placed a high priority on “adaptation” and “loss and damage” to strengthen ability to deal with and to recover from climate change impacts, along with “mitigation” to reduce GHG emission against global warming. An important decision is that a global goal on adaptation will be established and each country will prepare national plan according to the goal and will review the implementation every five years. Ref. Annex 2.(PDF: 80.0KB)
G7 Summit (26-27 May 2016, Ise-Shima, Japan) made commitments on eleven global economic and political issues, of which those relevant to DRR include: “Infrastructure” to promote quality infrastructure investment for sustainable growth and resilience; “climate change” for swift implementation of Paris Agreement; and “Development” to advance SDGs and to support developing countries in disaster risk reduction, climate change mitigation/adaptation etc.
Prior to the Summit, the Environment Ministers´ Meeting was held (15-16 May, Toyama) to discuss seven themes including “Climate Change and Related Measures”. The meeting issued a communique which, referring to Sendai FDRR and Paris Agreement, suggested various adaptation actions for consideration at the Summit. Ref. Annex 3.(PDF: 75.2KB)
I hope that this message, together with the previous messages of May 2015 and November 2015, will help ISN members understand the importance of sediment DRR in dealing with global issues, and will encourage them to work for sediment DRR according to “Recommendation of International Sabo Symposium 2015 in Sendai” actively and successfully until 2030, the target year of Sendai FDRR and SDGs, and further in the future for generations still to come.
June 2016
Hidetomi Oi
Director, International Sabo Association
Citation
- *
- Paragraph 1, The 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development, G7 Ise-Shima Leaders´ Declaration
- **
- Paragraph 34, Communique of G7 Environment Ministers´ Meeting
References
- Sendai FDRR: http://unisdr.org/files/43291_sendaiframeworkfordrren.pdf
- SDGs: A/RES/70/1: www.hlm.org/documents/A_RES_70_1_EN.pdf
- Paris Agreement: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/10a01.pdf
- G7 Ise-Shima Leaders´ Declaration: http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000160266.pdf
- Communique of G7 Toyama Environment Ministers´ Meeting:
http://env.go.jp/earth/g7toyama_emm/English/pdf/160516_G7MM%20Communique_Final.pdf