Weather-related disasters put a high toll on national economies and local livelihoods. Climate change is exacerbating the impacts associated with droughts, floods and other extreme weather events. According to the Stern Report “climate change will affect the basic elements of life for people around the world – access to water, food production, health, and the environment”. It advocates for immediate actions otherwise by the end of this century 5-20% of global GDP could be lost annually. While global action is required to avoid these long-term consequences, climate change is already affecting the risk of disasters today, and needs to be factored into economic development, poverty reduction and disaster management strategies.

This course on Climate Change and Disaster Risk aims at supporting the global agenda of managing the risks associated to climate change through increased knowledge and awareness of development practitioners and policy makers at national and local level. The course gives a brief introduction to the science of climate change, reviews the climate change impacts on natural hazards, the trends in magnitude and frequency of climatic extremes and changes in average climatic conditions. It explores the inter-linkages between disaster risk management and climate change adaptation and outlines strategies, methods and tools for integrated climate risk management.