Margareta Wahlström, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, addressed UN Member States, urging them to face the consequences of the economic and human impact of disasters since the Earth Summit that took place in Rio twenty years ago.
Presenting illustrative figures on disasters’ impacts on populations and economies over the last twenty years, she pressed the Member States to accelerate action in order to “eradicate this enormous waste of human, social and economic resources”. She added that the Rio+20 Conference's objective will be to define “realistic sustainable development goals” regarding that matter.
