The world has woken up to climate change. Adaptation has to start now because climate change is already harming the world’s most vulnerable people. Links between climate change and extreme weather, such as cyclones, floods and drought, are at the forefront of the minds of the public.

It is high time to advocate for the climate change adaptation agenda, using disaster risk reduction as the spearhead issue. But we should not re-invent the wheel: disaster risk reduction’s common ground with climate change adaptation is very significant, as both seek to prevent harm from increasingly strong and frequent weather and climatic hazards. Lawmakers can already start climate change adaptation by using existing disaster risk reduction tools, strategies and approaches, and a far-reaching international accord - the Hyogo Framework for Action for building resilience and nations and communities to disasters.

The UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) aims at building disaster resilient communities by promoting increased awareness of the importance of disaster reduction as an integral component of sustainable development, with the goal of reducing human, social, economic and environmental losses due to natural hazards and related technological and environmental disasters. The UN/ISDR is the focal point in the UN System to promote links and synergies between, and the coordination of, disaster reduction activities in the socio-economic, humanitarian and development fields, as well as to support policy integration: http: //www.unisdr.org