Legislating for resilience is the next frontier of disaster risk reduction

As disasters grow more frequent and costly worldwide, governments must keep pace with the one tool that can fundamentally reduce risk: legislation.

Globally, the number of disasters per year is projected to increase 40 per cent between 2015 and 2030—going from around 400 to 560. The total cost, including indirect and ecosystem impacts, already exceeds US$2.3-trillion each year. In Canada, insured catastrophic losses hit a record $9.2-billion in 2024, and according to the Canadian Climate Institute, since 2010, the cost of disasters consumed about five to six per cent of annual gross domestic product growth.

Extreme heat is a costly, striking example. As temperatures in Canada increase, workers face dangerous conditions, with productivity dropping by two to three per cent for every degree above 20 C, and health consequences ranging from heatstroke and dehydration to kidney dysfunction and neurological disorders.

Wildfires tell the same story. Higher temperatures dry out vegetation, extend fire seasons, and reduce recovery time between events. In 2025, more than 8.3 million hectares of Canadian forest burned: more than four times the 10-year average. This followed the 2024 Jasper wildfire and its $1.2-billion in insured losses.

The good news is that much can be done to improve this outlook. The benefits of investing in disaster risk reduction are often underestimated, and climate disasters are not inevitable. Many stem from human decisions: how we build cities, treat nature, generate energy, and treat each other. These shape our exposure and vulnerability to natural hazards like storms, floods, extreme heat, wildfires, and earthquakes. They carry real economic, health, and security consequences.

Countries need laws that reward decisions building disaster resilience and discourage those that leave us exposed. Indeed, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction—the global blueprint for reducing disaster losses by 2030—explicitly calls for parliamentary action.

Yet, in too many countries, that call goes only partially answered. Disaster legislation tends to focus on emergency management and civil protection; reactive rather than proactive. To save lives and livelihoods, these laws must emphasize prevention, which is cheaper and more effective than response and recovery.

Comprehensive disaster risk management laws should influence how infrastructure is built and maintained, how natural resources are used to prevent environmental degradation, and how public and private investment decisions account for long-term risk. Resilience should not depend solely on political priorities that change over time. It should be embedded in the rules that shape development.

The Climate Aligned Finance Act, Bill S-238, shows how legislation can close this gap. It would require financial institutions to assess and disclose climate-related risks, applying the principle of double materiality: how climate affects investments and how investments, in turn, affect climate and society.

But financial legislation alone is not sufficient. Disaster risk reduction laws should protect rights and ensure the equal participation of all, particularly women, persons with disabilities, children, and Indigenous Peoples, in line with established human rights instruments such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  

Still, these strategies need real authority to make an impact. Across most of the world, financing for disaster risk reduction remains a policy aspiration rather than a legal obligation. As a result, even after frameworks are adopted, disaster losses keep rising. The payoff from acting early is large: every dollar invested in disaster risk reduction returns an average of up to $15 in avoided recovery costs.

Momentum is building internationally for stronger legal frameworks. In November 2024, the UN General Assembly decided to elaborate and conclude a legally binding instrument on the protection of persons in the event of disasters by the end of 2027. This is an opportunity to strengthen national legislation and ensure that disaster risk reduction, preparedness, response, and recovery rest on clear legal obligations and accountability.

The disaster landscape of tomorrow is being shaped by decisions made today. The economic case for disaster risk reduction is just as strong as the moral one. Each law that embeds risk reduction into infrastructure, finance, or land use does more than reduce vulnerability or exposure; it establishes a precedent, builds institutional capacity, and raises the bar for what responsible governance looks like.

Working with institutions like the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, and alongside allies who share a commitment to evidence-based governance, countries can help defend and strengthen the multilateral frameworks that make co-ordinated resilience possible.

Canada has both the expertise and responsibility to lead. Legislating resilience is not just good policy, it is essential to safeguarding lives, economies, and the stability of future generations.

Kamal Kishore is Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Honourable Rosa Galvez is a civil-environmental engineer and an Independent Senator for the province of Quebec.

The Hill Times