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Carbon Brief
EM-DAT: Trump aid cuts could close database storing ‘world’s memory of disasters’
Abatify Summary
Nature & Climate Perspective
**The potential defunding and closure of EM-DAT severely compromises the global capacity to accurately monitor and adapt to climate-induced ecosystem collapses. **
- Obscures historical baselines for tracking extreme weather impacts on vulnerable ecosystems, directly hindering biodiversity restoration and conservation planning.
- Inhibits the rigorous assessment of permanence and reversal risks in LULUCF (Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry) projects by removing standardized historical disaster data.
- Degrades long-term ecological stability models by introducing significant data gaps in the compounding frequency and severity of natural disasters on forest carbon sinks.
Market & Policy Outlook
**Losing the EM-DAT registry destabilizes the climate risk modeling infrastructure essential for ICVCM-aligned market pricing, Loss and Damage funding, and corporate compliance. **
- Directly undermines the methodological integrity of Article 6.2 and Article 6.4 ITMO transfers by weakening the data verification needed to establish robust additionality and baseline scenarios.
- Disrupts risk-pricing and financial liquidity in the insurance and carbon markets, making it highly difficult to satisfy the ICVCM Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) regarding physical risk mitigation.
- Impedes corporate compliance with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and global ESG reporting mandates by denying firms access to standardized, historic regional physical hazard data.
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