Sendai five years on: reflections on the role of international law in the creation and reduction of disaster risk

This article offers a critical examination of the position of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 within international law. It is argued that any interrogation into the role of international law must begin not with existing disaster risk reduction (DRR) laws and policies, but rather with an enquiry into the nature of disaster risk and the role of international law in its creation and reduction. It is demonstrated how, while areas such as international human rights law can be utilized to enforce obligations in support of DRR, other areas – in particular international investment law – actively work to undermine DRR efforts. In order for international law to be a productive tool in the reduction of disaster risk international lawyers must engage with critical work in disaster studies in order to explore the role that the former has played – and can play – in creating and addressing hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities

Treatment of Natural Hazards Within Planning Documents in Serbia in Relation to Climate Change Issues

Corresponding to contemporary international frameworks that promote sustainable development following the adoption of the Paris agreement at the 21st Conference on the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 17 sustainable development goals are specifically promoted, and, in addition to sustainability, resilience and, accordingly, disaster risk reduction. In this respect, the harmonization of global, regional and local development is conditioned by climate change issues. The Republic of Serbia (RS), according to the given scenarios, expects a rise in temperature and long-lasting droughts and fires, as well as more intense precipitations that could result in the occurrence of natural hazards such as floods, escarpments and other similar events. Thus, this paper provides an overview of the current planning framework that addresses the problem of preparing areas for emergency situations and disaster risk reduction with a special reference to these climate change issues and their impact in terms of natural disasters. An overview of selected case studies shows that disaster risk reduction is present in the planning documents—the spatial and urban plans—and that the natural hazards that have appeared within the last decade in Serbia have resulted in the initiating and innovating of the legal and planning bases, as well as concrete adjustments and amendments within the planning documents

Climate Services and Communication for Development: The Role of Early Career Researchers in Advancing the Debate

Climate services entail providing timely and tailored climate information to end-users in order to facilitate and improve decision-making processes. Climate services are instrumental in socio-economic development and benefit substantially from interdisciplinary collaborations, particularly when including Early Career Researchers (ECRs). This commentary critically discusses deliberations from an interdisciplinary workshop involving ECRs from the United Kingdom and South Africa in 2017, to discuss issues in climate adaptation and climate services development in water resources, food security and agriculture. Outcomes from the discussions revolved around key issues somewhat marginalized within the broader climate service discourse. This commentary discusses what constitutes “effective” communication, framings (user framings, mental models, narratives, co-production) and ethical dimensions in developing climate services that can best serve end-users. It also reflects on how ECRs can help tackle these important thematic areas and advance the discourse on climate services