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
10 November 2026
New UN report warns of widening climate adaptation gap and increasing losses and damages
IIASA researchers contributed to the UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2026, which warns that climate adaptation efforts and financing are failing to keep pace with accelerating climate impacts, leaving vulnerable countries increasingly exposed to losses and damages.
10 November 2026
Science for a more resilient Europe: Reinhard Mechler appointed to European Commission disaster preparedness advisory group
IIASA researcher Reinhard Mechler has been appointed as one of six scientific experts to the European Commission's newly established PreparEU Advisory Group, which aims to strengthen Europe's preparedness and resilience in the face of growing disaster risks, extreme weather events, and emerging threats.
09 November 2026
From Barbados to London: Advancing science diplomacy and international cooperation
IIASA Science Diplomacy Director and Head of Communications and External Relations Susie Kitchens led a delegation to Barbados to explore opportunities for scientific collaboration in support of the country's economic transformation ambitions. The visit was followed by high-level engagements in London aimed at strengthening international research partnerships and IIASA's ties with UK institutions.