The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction is celebrated annually on 13 October. Its aim is to raise awareness of measures to prevent and mitigate the consequences of natural disasters. 

According to UN estimates, by 2030, the world could experience about 560 disasters per year, with approximately 75 percent of extreme weather events linked to climate change. Every year, millions of people are affected by these events, including floods, droughts, and heatwaves.

Kazakhstan, like other Central Asian countries, is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change. In recent years, it has faced increasing threats, such as the forest fires in the Abay and Kostanay regions, which destroyed over 100,000 hectares of forest in 2022-2023. In 2024, devastating floods across 10 regions caused damage costing 300 billion tenge, marking the largest disaster in the country in the last 80 years. 

Kazakhstan's commitments under international agreements, such as the Sendai Framework and the Paris Agreement, serve as a catalyst for implementing solutions in climate change adaptation, low-carbon development, and sustainable environmental management.

To address the challenges posed by climate change, Kazakhstan is implementing various projects aimed at increasing resilience to disasters. One such project, conducted in partnership with the Government of Japan and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is titled “Enhancing Urban Resilience to Disaster Risk and Climate Change in Central Asia.” This project provides an integrated approach and fosters regional cooperation across Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, integrating climate change and disaster risk reduction into urban planning and development.

Another key project focuses on integrating climate adaptation into Kazakhstan's strategic planning. It is implemented by UNDP in collaboration with the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and the Green Climate Fund. This project includes an analysis of national legislation on civil protection and disaster risk reduction, forestry, water resources, and agriculture. Vulnerability assessments are conducted to identify risks, laying the foundation for integrating adaptation measures into national and regional development plans.

In 2022, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a global effort to ensure that by 2027, early warning systems protect every person on Earth. The Early Warning for All initiative brings together various UN organizations, governments, civil society, and development partners to achieve this goal. Kazakhstan has already begun developing monitoring systems, such as Kazhydromet (for forecasting), the Crisis Management Center (for coordination), the Single Duty Dispatch Service 112 (for emergencies), as well as a flood forecasting model that is currently under development. (A detailed analysis of the implementation of early warning systems in Central Asian countries can be found in UNDP and UNDRR report). 

Despite the country’s ongoing efforts, the emergence of new threats and challenges requires a revision of approaches and further enhancement of legislation in the field of civil protection. This includes shifting from a system focused on disaster response to one centered on prevention, particularly in the context of increasing climate risk.