The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) and the Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) have signed a United Nations statement on reducing the impact of natural disasters.

The industry bodies joined insurers and dozens of other private sector bodies in making the commitment at the World Conference on Disaster and Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan.

“The conference adopts a new global framework to help governments at all levels better prepare for disaster risk and to improve the resilience of nations and communities to disasters, and includes the private sector for the first time,” ICNZ CEO Tim Grafton said.

He says countries such as New Zealand can improve their situations by harmonising legislation that deals with natural disasters and improving crisis management.

An ICA spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au the council “supports practical measures to lower disaster risk to communities and has initiated its own programs to help communities improve their understanding of mitigation and resilience”.

IAG is the first Australian insurance company to sign the statement, while Munich Re, Swiss Re, Aviva UK, Axa France and Tokio Marine are among the 33 signatories so far.

“We support the inclusion of the private sector in this framework, and believe there is a particular role for the insurance industry – as risk managers, risk carriers and institutional investors – in implementing this framework,” the statement says.

The Principles for Sustainable Insurance statement was released at the start of the conference by leading insurance companies from the UN Environment Program Finance Initiative – a collaboration between the UN and the insurance industry.

It urges governments to adopt the UN’s post-2015 framework on disaster risk reduction, which is expected to be adopted in Sendai.

The statement says in the past decade average world economic losses from disasters have been about $US190 billion ($249 billion) per year, with average insured losses at $US60 billion ($78.64 billion) per year. This century, more than 1 million people have lost their lives to disasters.

More than 6000 delegates from more than 190 countries are attending this week’s conference in Sendai, organised by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale spoke at the event, saying the monster cyclone that hit his country at the weekend is a setback for his people, wiping out much of the nation’s development.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the conference one way to reduce the impact of disasters is to tackle climate change.