World Tsunami Awareness Day 2021: From Halloween and beyond, let’s work together to make tsunamis and climate change less scary for our planet

By Harrish Thirukumaran

October 31 brings about a time of pumpkin carving, trick or treating and all things spooky with the occasion of Halloween. However, Halloween 2021 also marks another significant occasion. This Sunday, October 31, 2021, the 26th United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) will be held in Glasgow, Scotland. Held from Sunday until November 12, 2021, COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. In continuing the activities that will emerge from the conference at the start of November 2021, this is an opportunity to bring attention towards World Tsunami Awareness Day.

Annually observed on November 5, World Tsunami Awareness Day encourages the development of national and community-level, local disaster risk reduction strategies to save more lives against disasters. The UN General Assembly designated November 5 as World Tsunami Awareness Day in December 2015. It calls on countries, international bodies and civil society to raise tsunami awareness and share innovative approaches to risk reduction.

World Tsunami Awareness Day was initiated by Japan. It was in large part due to its repeated, bitter tsunami experiences that had led to developing major expertise in areas such as tsunami early warning, public action and building back better after a disaster to reduce future impacts. UN Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) facilitates the observance of World Tsunami Awareness Day in collaboration with the rest of the United Nations system.

By the year 2030, an estimated 50 per cent of the world’s population will live in coastal areas exposed to flooding, storms, and tsunamis. According to COP26, the world is currently not on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. The targets announced in Paris would result in warming well above 3 degrees by 2100 compared to pre-industrial levels.

If climate change trends like these are ongoing, temperatures will carry on rising, bringing even more catastrophic flooding, bush fires, extreme weather, and destruction of species. Now that is quite spooky. In turn, having plans and policies in place to reduce tsunami impacts will help to build more resilience and protect populations at risk as a significant measure in the fight against climate change.

In 2021, World Tsunami Awareness Day will promote target (f) of the “Sendai Seven Campaign.” This is set towards substantially enhancing international cooperation to developing countries through adequate and sustainable support to complement their national actions for implementation of the present Framework by 2030.

Decisions and resolutions adopted in June 2021 at the 31st Session of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (UNESCO/IOC) will further boost global efforts to strengthen tsunami preparedness. The UN Ocean Decade (2021–2030) will provide “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to improve tsunami detection and early warning systems “even from the near instant they form, and to enhance the preparedness of coastal communities for tsunamis through the UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready Programme.

In thinking about your role, you can visit https://tsunamiday.undrr.org/ to learn and engage with the 2021 World Tsunami Awareness Day campaign. Additionally, take the time to advocate to your elected representatives in Canada in prioritizing tsunami awareness and disaster prevention as a key part in the fight against climate change to prevent natural disasters. From Halloween and beyond, let’s work together to make tsunamis and climate change less scary for our planet.

Written in November 2021