Highlights and images for 5 June 2025

Finance is critical to implementation of the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), but investments have not kept pace with rising demands, and aid budgets are shrinking worldwide. In sessions throughout the day, delegates at the 8th session of the Global Platform for DRR focused attention on where funds may be found for a wide range of needs, including school safety, measures to deal with extreme heat, and nature-based solutions (NbS).

Want to dig deeper into today's talks? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.

Many suggested that financing for DRR and climate action could be better aligned, as they looked to climate funds such as the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, and mechanisms such as the Santiago Network, for guiding countries in preparedness and recovery.

A high-level dialogue on the topic ‘What will it take to scale DRR financing solutions at the national and local level?’ and a special session on ‘Comprehensive approaches to reduce loss and damage: Bridging climate action and DRR’ reiterated in different ways the old saying, “prevention is better than cure”—indeed, as one speaker at the latter event asserted, “Prevention is not better than cure; it is the cure.”

Delegates debated how spending can be most effective, as some highlighted the need for rigorous accounting, numerical quantification, and analysis to prove the value of nature-based and other kinds of solutions. Other speakers, such as John Mussington, who was displaced from the island of Barbuda when Hurricane Irma struck in 2017, highlighted issues of justice. He noted that the decision to declare the island largely uninhabitable was not made by the residents, but by others with vested interests in redeveloping the land for commercial purposes.

Rich discussions on addressing disasters and safety in schools further drew attention to equity. In a ministerial event, 36 countries emphasized capacity building for children. Interventions addressed mental and emotional impacts on children, education programming to enhance preparedness and mobilize youth as agents of change, and technical solutions for infrastructure. Ministers as well as participants at a school safety side event emphasized strengthening school safety governance, particularly the Comprehensive School Safety Framework, as a component to national DRR planning, with some highlighting the fundamental right of children to safe school environments.

Many other events took place around the Global Platform venue through the day. In the evening, presentation of the UN Sasakawa Awards for DRR recognized the work of individuals and organizations. Awards went to the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster, Harkunti Rahayu of the Indonesian Disaster Expert Association, and Mrutyunjay Mohapatra of the India Meteorological Department.

Reflecting the mood of the day, Makalese Mata, Pasifika performance artiste, presented a dance during a thematic session. In traditional dance movements, she told the story of the volanic eruption in Tonga and people’s resilience, urging all present, “Let us not only prepare for disaster; let us prevent it with justice.”