The year 2020 rivalled 2016 as the world’s hottest recorded year despite the absence of a strong El Niño effect. Apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, the year was dominated by climate-related disasters.

The aim of this exploratory paper is to provide some critical perspectives and insights on the role of the private sector in disaster risk reduction, in particular with regards to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery process.

The Status of Science and Technology report is an important step for monitoring the progress in the implementation of the Sendai Framework and an attempt to capture some of the progress across geographies, stakeholders, and disciplines towards the application of science and technology towards risk reduction in Asia-Pacific.

7,348 major disaster events had occurred between 2000 and 2019, claiming 1.23 lives, affecting 4.2 billion people and costing the global economy some $2.97 trillion.Of this, China (577 events) and the United States of America (U.S.) (467 events) reported the highest number of disaster events ,followed by India (321 events). Climate change is to be blamed for the doubling of natural disasters in the past 20 years says the report.

Cities are drivers and victims of climate change. Risks to climate change and induced disasters vary spatially and across a region's demographic spectrum.

Cities are drivers and victims of climate change. Risks to climate change and induced disasters vary spatially and across a region's demographic spectrum.

This report sets out recommendations on how the main sustainable finance initiatives underway can support a major reduction in disaster risk. The scale of financial flows and investments is massive. In Europe assets under management reached €25.2 trillion in 2017, 147% of GDP .