Heatwaves, floods and cyclones are increasing in the Asia-Pacific region as the climate crisis unfolds, forcing the Red Cross to come up with new, long-term fixes that better meet the challenges of extreme weather.
Bangladesh has lost an average of US$3 billion per year due to the impact of climate change during the last three decades, according to the environmental non-profit Germanwatch.
Last year, devastating flash floods affected about 5 million people in Bangladesh, with the death toll reaching 71.
Alexander Matheou, Asia-Pacific regional director of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), sat down with Context in Dhaka to discuss how disaster responses can protect the most vulnerable populations.
What has recent experience taught you about disaster management?
If you look at the flooding in 2024, the event triggered a relief response. But the consequences will go on for a long, long time. A lot of land is no longer viable for the livelihoods that it was used for before, forcing a much more serious long-term strategy around adaptation.
Moreover, vulnerable communities, poorer communities tend to be at higher risk of climate threats because they live in the least safe areas; they live in flood-prone areas, and often areas without clean, running water. So they are at high risk both to heat and floods or, in other parts of the world, cold.
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As we become better at weather forecasting, we can become better at alerting communities in advance of the mitigating measures they need to take. So you don’t necessarily have to walk through villages ringing bells. You might be able to put a message on everybody’s mobile phone very, very quickly.
Alexander Matheou, Asia-Pacific regional director, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
What are the challenges in supporting those who are worst hit?
The poorest people often live in undocumented and non-registered housing, which is spontaneously built in areas where no one else wants to live, and at high risk.
Now those are hard things to address from a policy perspective because if they’re not there legally, governments are often not willing to find durable solutions for them because their solution is that they should move, not be there.
We try to have those conversations just like we did during the pandemic, when governments often had a policy not to deal with undocumented migrants. But for the sake of public safety, they would still allow vaccines to go to undocumented migrants
Could technology help us better protect vulnerable groups?
Some of the world’s best practices in disaster management - like pre-disaster cash support and community alerts - have been modelled here in Bangladesh and then replicated.
As we become better at weather forecasting, we can become better at alerting communities in advance of the mitigating measures they need to take. So you don’t necessarily have to walk through villages ringing bells. You might be able to put a message on everybody’s mobile phone very, very quickly.
Artificial intelligence will also become very good at creating mitigation strategies, early warning messages, and escape routes. We’re not using it yet, but in two or three years’ time, we probably will be.
With funds so limited, how can countries support their poorest?
Climate-related problems have to be solved through national budgets and through private-sector partnerships with some complementary support from development financing.
Rather than relying on options like international climate financing or development banks, I think more important are innovations such as what insurance schemes are going to be viable.
Insurance companies prefer to work with wealthier clients, frankly, rather than the world’s poorest. But many communities that live in disaster-prone areas are insurable if we can find the right deal.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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