The Rio+20 Summit came to a conclusion on June 22 with the issuance of an outcome document entitled “The Future We Want” that renewed the “call for accelerated implementation of the international blueprint for disaster risk reduction agreed by all UN member States seven years ago.” That agreement – the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters – has been endorsed by 193 member States since 2005, “with 133 governments actively reporting on implementation.”

A press release posted on the UNISDR website noted that: “The text has governments calling on a variety of actors – from government to civil society, the scientific community, academia and the private sector – to take measures to reduce the exposure of people, infrastructure and other national assets to risk, in line with the Hyogo Framework for Action and any post 2015 framework for disaster risk reduction that might follow.”

In addition to the call for “accelerated implementation,” there is also “a demand for more coordinated and comprehensive strategies that integrate disaster risk reduction and climate change adaption considerations into public and private investment, decision making and the planning of humanitarian and development actions to reduce risk, to increase resilience and provide a smoother transition between relief, recovery and development.”

Margareta Wahlström, UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, who took part in the summit, said: “The potential for disaster is always rising. It’s going to be hard to maintain the same level of safety, especially with overpopulation and land pressure, climate change, permafrost melting and extreme weather.”