UN meeting embraces cooperation to cut risks from storms in Asia-Pacific region

Typhoon committee concludes session in Singapore

With typhoon-related damage accounting for more than half of the economic losses from natural disasters, along with a marked increase in recent extreme weather events, countries in the Asia-Pacific region have agreed at a United Nations meeting to work closely together and coordinate their efforts.


This was one of the major outcomes of the 42nd Session of ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee, convened by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) in cooperation with the World Meteorological Organization

(WMO) and hosted by the National Environment Agency of Singapore. The five-day meeting closed today in Singapore.

This year’s session focused on the effect of climate change on tropical cyclones in the Typhoon Committee region. Results of an initial assessment show either a decreasing trend or no trend in the annual number of tropical cyclones and typhoons in the Western North Pacific and the South China Sea.

Participants pointed out that climate models project fewer but more intense tropical cyclones in this basin in a warmer climate.

Typhoons continue to cause havoc in many countries of the region. In 2009, 22 tropical cyclones formed over the Western North Pacific and the South China Sea, 13 of which reached typhoon intensity. Three of them – Ketsana, Parma and Morakot – caused severe damage and losses in the Philippines, Cambodia, Viet Nam, and Taiwan, Province of China.

The Committee identified urban flood risk management as a key area for future work, given that high damage caused by tropical cyclones usually happens in populous cities when they bring heavy rainfall. The Committee said it was well-prepared to tackle this issue since its work covers meteorology, hydrology and disaster prevention and mitigation.
The Asia-Pacific region is one of the most vulnerable to natural disasters.

From 1950 to 2005, 54 per cent of worldwide deaths caused by natural disasters – or approximately three million people –occurred in this region.

The wind storms and floods associated with typhoon-related impacts account for 57 per cent – or approximately $33.5 billion – of the economic losses in the region during the same period.
ESCAP, in collaboration with WMO, founded the Typhoon Committee in 1968.

The founding members were: China; Hong Kong, China; Japan; the Republic of Korea; Lao PDR; Philippines and Thailand. In the years since, Cambodia, Malaysia, Viet Nam, Macao, China; the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea; Singapore; and the United States of America joined the Committee, raising the membership to 14.

The Committee works on reducing the damage caused by typhoons and floods in the region by coordinating the efforts of its members as well as recommending ways to increase community preparedness, improve

meteorological and hydrological facilities. The Committee also promotes the establishment of programmes for training personnel in forecasting typhoons and other disasters.

Following the success of the Typhoon Committee in the Asia-Pacific area, WMO established four similar regional bodies under the global WMO Tropical Cyclone Programme.