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Combating climate change and averting, minimizing and addressing its impacts are essential if we are going to realize the ultimate goal of lives well lived for all. The United Nations uses the language of sustainable development, including reducing the impact of disasters, as one means to secure the rights of present and future generations. To do so effectively requires a whole of society approach - ensuring that all actors are given the opportunity to do their part - as well as a whole of government  approach - ensuring coherence between a host of reinforcing processes. For people and planet, we must commit to ensuring rapid implementation of the Paris Agreement and addressing the urgency of action on Loss and Damage in the UNFCCC climate change negotiations/processes. The Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism for Disaster Risk Reduction is an open, structured mechanism of 17 constituencies of non-state actors to participate in the implementation and monitoring of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (Sendai Framework). It sees tremendous benefit to greater policy coherence and shared approaches between the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework and will be advancing such initiatives at COP27 and beyond.

A number of specific recommendations are outlined in greater detail in the SEM policy paper for COP27, but three experiences from disaster risk reduction come to the fore. Firstly, stakeholder inclusion at all levels is essential for any meaningful and sustained advance in combating the climate crisis. Second, solutions and strategies already exist within communities beyond the conventional UNFCCC mechanisms. Drawing on them would do much to strengthen integration and improve effectiveness, including on losses and damages. Finally, climate action and disaster risk reduction are two sides of the same coin - as climate change is mitigated, disasters are reduced, and as resilience is built in communities the impacts of climate change are tempered.