Bonn technical forum 2025 – Data as the lever for climate action

As climate and disaster risks intensify, countries are calling for data-driven decision-support tools to strengthen planning and implementation for early warning and early action, recovery, and resilience, unlocking DRR and climate financing, and supporting sustainable development initiatives. Institutionalized and interoperable systems to track hazardous events, and disaster losses and damages – transforming data into actionable insights – are among these tools, and thus the focus of technical assistance being provided to countries by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and partners.  

From 3 to 5 December 2025, the UNDRR Bonn Office convened the Bonn Technical Forum (BTF) 2025 at the UN Campus in Bonn, with a focus on data as a connective, foundational element of resilience building. The forum brought together more than 66 DRR practitioners, statisticians, data innovators, UN entities, together with representatives of intergovernmental organizations and international organizations, to advance the use of data for integrated approaches for climate action and disaster risk reduction. Under the theme “Data as the Lever for Climate Action – Accelerating tracking of hazardous events and disasters,” the Forum sought to strengthen disaster tracking systems and explore how to further translate data on hazardous events and losses and damages into enablers for decision-making across international, regional, national and subnational frameworks for DRR and climate action, among others. 

From data collection to decision-making: focusing on practical use cases and applications  

A central message throughout the forum was that any data and monitoring system must be driven by the needs of countries and use cases and practical applications. Tracking hazardous events and losses and damages is not an end in itself, but an important means to inform concrete decisions, ranging from understanding and reducing risks, to strengthening impact-based multi-hazard early warning systems, guiding and assessing effectiveness of early action, informing recovery, and supporting financing for resilience. It also can enhance monitoring under the Sendai Framework as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement. 

“My involvement in the Bonn Technical Forum organized by UNDRR strengthened my understanding of tracking of hazardous events and losses and damages and its use for risk assessment and decision-making. ASEAN can benefit from this by improving regional disaster preparedness, enabling evidence-based policies, and strengthening coordination across ASEAN Member States.” (Dr. Riyanti Djalante, ASEAN Secretariat). 

The next-generation disaster-tracking system, DELTA Resilience ( Disaster and hazardous Events Losses and damages Tracking and Analysis) , developed by UNDRR in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), was a centerpiece of the forum. Participants acknowledged the benefits and potential value-addition of the enhanced system, comprising latest data standards, updated statistical methods embedded into an open-source software to systematically generate and analyze official disaster data.  

During the workshop, the practical use of the system to capture not only direct losses and damages from hazardous events but also enable recording of information about cascading impacts was demonstrated. Among other things, participants delved further into these and other uses of the system, particularly as a tool to support decision-making – from local and sectoral planning to national policy and global reporting.  

In reflecting on the systems, Curmira Gulston, Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management, Trinidad and Tobago, stated that, “Through DELTA, we can advance significantly to really understand economic and non-economic loss and damage, and how we can integrate it with existing systems, for example, for early warnings, for decision making in terms of investment planning, and also for zoning.” She also underscored spatial datasets in analyzing data on losses and damages, one of the features of the system being further enhanced.  

In moving forward, participants highlighted the importance of countries defining priority use of losses and damages data and DELTA Resilience, ensuring that systems respond to national needs and capacities. 

Strengthening methodologies, standards, and interoperability  

Participants highlighted that there is clear demand for further guidance on methodologies for losses and damages assessments, including for non-economic losses, where significant gaps remain. The Forum advanced dialogue on how DELTA Resilience can embed and align existing methodologies, such as post-disaster need assessments (PDNAs), and emerging approaches to assess losses and damages.  

Participants reiterated the necessity of integrating information about hazards, exposures and vulnerabilities, as well as qualitative insights. This is essential to contextualizing impacts and providing actionable information to support resilience building efforts, including integrated approaches to climate action and disaster risk reduction. 

In the lead up to the Forum, UNDRR together with UNDP and WMO, in close collaboration with the Netherlands Red Cross 510, hosted a webinar on 27 November 2025 to preview how the recently developed Data Ecosystem Maturity Assessment (DEMA) framework supports country readiness for institutionalizing tracking systems such as DELTA Resilience . It set the tone for a crucial element of the discussions, particularly as such frameworks can help countries with identifying strengthens and gaps in data available and needed for robust and evidence-based decision-making.  

Making visible the invisible: advancing tracking of non-economic losses  

A dedicated thematic focus was placed on non-economic losses, including biodiversity and ecosystem services, cultural heritage, displacement, and other intangible impacts that are often underreported. Ongoing efforts to assess environmental losses, a critical component of non-economic losses, were presented: e.g. FRAME-ECO, a framework for enhancing tracking of ecosystem and biodiversity losses, a joint effort by UNDRR, UNEP, and UNU-EHS.  

In contextualizing this issue, Niloofar Sadeghi Komjani, ESCAP APDIM, said that, “In Iran, massive wildfires due to extreme heat affect huge areas of forests and communities. We don’t know how to account for the impacts to the environment and to our culture because the scale is unprecedented.”   

The Forum underscored the growing momentum to better conceptualize, assess and track these losses as well as opportunities to reduce institutional siloes through clearer protocols, shared standards, and strengthened communication across ministries, agencies, and sectors.  

Pathways to country roll-out and the role of partnerships  

The Forum underscored the crucial role of partnerships in scaling and sustaining hazardous events and disaster tracking systems. Regional intergovernmental organizations highlighted their unique position to support countries through awareness raising, joint learning, stocktaking exercises, and capacity development. Expanding the actor space beyond traditional disaster risk management institutions was seen as essential for comprehensive collection and use of data on losses and damages. Discussions on roll-out and operationalization stressed the need for flexible and adaptable approaches, reflecting different country contexts and maturity levels. Participants highlighted the importance of continued co-design of system functionalities, standards, and methods to ensure country ownership and long-term sustainability.  

From technical progress to lasting impact  

The Bonn Technical Forum concluded with a shared call by UNDRR, UNDP, and WMO to enhance and foster high-quality data, serving the priorities and needs of countries as they pursue resilience.  

“DELTA Resilience aims to be the gold standard for disaster data, transforming complexity into clarity through cutting-edge methods. Its success depends on partnerships, capacity, and bold investment. If data shapes every decision we make, then financing it must be the heartbeat of every programme, project, and initiative,” said Animesh Kumar, Head of the UNDRR Office in Bonn.  

In their final reflections participants again underscored the relevance of loss and damages data as an essential enabler of risk-informed policies, resilient development, and effective climate action and disaster risk reduction in an era of growing and increasingly interconnected risks and impacts.