The Global Assessment Report is the defining report on the state of art and future on disaster risk. The comprehensive 2025 report comes 10 years after the Sendai Framework, where the global community agreed to further prevent the creation of new risk, reduce existing risk and increase resilience.
The Global Assessment Report (GAR) 2025, published by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and titled, Resilience Pays: Financing and Investing for our Future, shows disaster risk is increasing as more frequent and intense hazard events, unsafe urbanization, and ineffective development put more people and assets in harm's way. Disasters have profound macroeconomic impacts, with direct losses estimated at $202 billion. When cascading and ecosystem costs are taken into account, escalating disaster costs now surpass $2.3 trillion annually.
The report also highlights how smarter investment can reset the destructive cycle of disasters, debt, uninsurability, and humanitarian need that threatens a climate-changed world.
IIASA contributed with global analysis on fiscal risk showing how compound hazard risk leads to more frequently occurring fiscal crisis events. Concerningly, based on an analysis of disaster and economic indices, it suggests that for 61 vulnerable countries events significant enough to trigger a fiscal crises may occur more than every 10 years (an annual probability larger than 10%). The IIASA contribution goes further to underscore that this is not inevitable. It shows how having better access to finance and innovative disaster risk financing options can help stop this bifurcation between countries increasingly caught in a rapid cycle of disaster related fiscal crises and those able to develop more sustainably. Specifically, the study takes as an example, how countries’ reserve assets in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (the Special Drawing Rights (SDR)) can soften the impact of disasters as proposed internationally by the Bridgetown Initiative to reform the global development and climate finance architecture.
Such an investment in risk reduction would thus have a massive development dividend in terms of fiscal and economic stability, solid credit ratings, access to finance and thus enhanced government capacity to support the most vulnerable communities and households.
© UNDRR
News
28 May 2026
Nexus of Sustainability: Springer monograph devoted to joint IIASA and Ukraine NMO project
Nexus of Sustainability: Understanding of FEWSE Systems II is a 2026 Springer monograph detailing the interdependencies between food, energy, water, society, and the environment (FEWSE). It focuses on risk management, robust modeling, and sustainable development, featuring recent research of the joint research project between IIASA and National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU, Ukraine NMO at IIASA) on “Integrated modeling for robust management of food-energy-water-land use nexus for sustainable development”.
28 May 2026
CAT contributes to Expert Round Table on Climate Misinformation under MIP4Adapt
Researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) contributed to the Expert Round Table on Climate Misinformation, organized within the framework of the MIP4Adapt initiative. MIP4Adapt (Mission Implementation Platform) is the central support mechanism for the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, aiding regions and local authorities in planning and implementing climate resilience strategies. It provides technical assistance, community building, and funding guidance to Charter signatories.
05 May 2026
Amazon understory forests show short-term boost in CO₂ uptake – but this comes at a cost
Tropical forests are one of the planet's most important carbon sinks – often also called "the lungs of the Earth". But their future in a high-CO₂ world remains uncertain. IIASA researchers contributed to a new study, which suggests even small understory trees in the Amazon may initially buffer climate change more strongly. Their long-term capacity to store carbon could, however, be restricted by nutrient availability, highlighting the vulnerability of these ecosystems under future climate conditions.