‘Disasters could cost Asia-Pacific region $160bln per year by 2030’

UNITED NATIONS: Economic losses to disasters in Asia and the Pacific could exceed $160 billion annually by 2030, the United Nations development arm in the region has warned, urging greater innovation in disaster risk financing.

The need is all the more pressing given that only eight percent of the region’s losses are insured, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said.

"The time for establishing solutions to these complex emerging challenges is now," Shamshad Akhtar, the executive secretary of ESCAP, said, while speaking at an event on financing for disaster risk reduction in Asia-Pacific at the UN headquarters in New York.

The low insurance coverage has persisted in the region even though it has

suffered nearly $1.3 trillion in losses over the last 50 years.

The result is that individuals, businesses and Governments are left to bear the staggering costs of natural calamities.

And with extreme weather events increasing as the region’s cities become more crowded, the gap could widen.

"Business as usual is unsustainable, policymakers and financial strategists in both the public and private sectors have to work together," the head of ESCAP said.

She also highlighted the role Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, which spans a geographic region from Turkey in the west to the tiny Pacific island of Kiribati in the east, and from Russia in the north to New Zealand in the south.