XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

686

Climate Change's Role in Disasters and Disaster Risk Reduction

RC39 Sociology of Disasters (host committee)

Language: English

Disaster research provides many theories, policy and practice lessons, and approaches which are not often fully incorporated into climate change work. From the basis of disaster risk being a combination of hazard and vulnerability, the role of climate change for hazards and vulnerabilities can be demarcated in order to recommend how disaster and climate change related work could be better connected with each other and also with development approaches--including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals. In order to ensure that the pressing issues in climate change are addressed comprehensively, including within the context of the Paris Agreement and consequent actions, this session would scope out key areas of collaboration and key models of integration, aiming to avoid further separation between the fields and instead supporting increased collaboration to work towards common goals and outcomes. In particular, this session can highlight the deep-rooted vulnerability processes causing disasters through "multiple exposure" to multiple threats, rather than hazards or hazard influencers such as climate change causing disasters. Consequently, climate change adaptation would be one process amongst many within disaster risk reduction while climate change mitigation sits within pollution prevention. In turn, disaster risk reduction and pollution prevention sit within development and sustainability to avoid isolation from wider topics. Integration of the topics in this way moves forward a vision of increased collaboration rather than continuing silos and separation.