UN Secretary-General: World threatened by dangerous and unacceptable levels of risk from disasters
The 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR15) is launched today by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

04 March 2015, NEW YORK – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today warned that “growing global inequality, increasing exposure to natural hazards, rapid urbanization and the over-consumption of energy and natural resources threaten to drive risk to dangerous and unpredictable levels with systemic global impacts.”

The 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR15), prepared by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and launched today by the Secretary-General, states that economic losses from disasters are now reaching an average of US$250 billion to US$300 billion annually.

In connection with the report’s findings, the Secretary-General said: “We are playing with fire. There is a very real possibility that disaster risk, fuelled by climate change, will reach a tipping point beyond which the effort and resources necessary to reduce it will exceed the capacity of future generations.”…

– Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 website
– Download press release in PDF
– Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction