UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has launched a new initiative to build climate resilience in the world’s most vulnerable countries, which includes the Pacific region.

Launched at COP21, the Paris Climate Conference, the new initiative will strengthen the ability of countries to anticipate hazards, absorb shocks, and reshape development to reduce climate risks.

The newly announced initiative, the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Resilience Initiative — Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape — will help address the needs of the nearly 634 million people or a tenth of the global population who live in at-risk coastal areas just a few metres above existing sea levels, as well as those living in areas at risk of droughts and floods.

Like Fiji, some parts of the world are now experiencing a strong El Niño event, which could place as many as 4.7 million people at risk from drought in the Pacific alone.

This initiative is expected to bring together private sector organisations, governments, UN agencies, research institutions and other stakeholders to scale up transformative solutions that will focus on the most vulnerable people and communities in small island developing states, least developed countries and African countries.

A recent report issued by the UN shows that over the past twenty years, 90 per cent of major disasters have been caused by 6457 recorded floods, storms, heatwaves, droughts and other weather-related events.

“These are the people who did the least to cause climate change, yet they stand to lose their homes, their jobs, and even their lives because of the growing impacts of climate change,” Mr Ban said.

“That is why I have asked the UN system to put together a package of initiatives to address this urgent need.

“The Secretary-General’s Climate Resilience Initiative signals a new era in how the United Nations and its agencies think about our global future, said Dr. Judith Rodin, author of The Resilience Dividend and president of The Rockefeller Foundation, which has made pioneering investments of more than a half-billion dollars to build resilience globally over the past decade.

“Crisis is the new normal, and our world demands that we seek solutions that solve multiple problems at once, for the greatest number of people, while strengthening the fabric of their communities, economies, and lives.”

The 13 UN entities participating in the initiative are FAO, UNEP, UNFCCC, UN-Habitat, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNOPS, UNISDR, WFP, OCHA, WHO, and WMO.