Do natural disasters accelerate sustainability transitions? Insights from the Central Italy earthquake

July 2023

“…Here, 13 residents were rescued during very low visibility weather from rooftops and vehicles. 6 Other examples include ADF heavy-lift aircraft used in Western Australia during floods in the Kimberly in January 2023. 7…”

“…This would require a shift towards a participative democratic process; a sharing of responsibility for both problems and solutions. 6 The expertise of governments and their agencies would bring significant benefit to the definition of the problems that are likely to be faced into the future, and the values and preferences of community members would help shape the solutions in response to those problems. 7,8 Finally, it is important that the change agents are prepared to 'be in relationship' with those they are seeking to serve and protect; that they genuinely understand the vulnerability of themselves and others and the potential for suffering to ensue.…”

“…4,5 Disaster events are also more likely to occur in less-developed regions that are already vulnerable and less well-equipped to face both grand societal challenges and, potentially, disaster recovery. 6 Additionally, politics has been a close companion of past disasters and tends to derail attempts to highlight and tackle the systemic causes of exposure and vulnerabilities for short-term personal or political wins. 7 The size of the disruption matters.…”

From traditional innovation to green innovation: How an occurrence of natural disasters influences sustainable development?

“…3. Guo et al (2015) and Rizzo et al (2022) pointed out that natural disasters per se do not fundamentally change the development patterns of regions, but the positive potential of disasters for sustainable transformation could be realized by intervening with anthropogenic measures such as policy coordination and reinvestment of human capital. However, they ignore the key role played by the changing process of innovation as an important driver of sustainable development.…”

“…Therefore, the impact of natural disasters on the long-term sustainable development of the regional economy is uncertain, and the mechanism for this impact is not yet clear. Guo et al (2015) and Rizzo et al (2022) showed that natural disasters per se do not fundamentally change regional development patterns, but through policy coordination and reinvestment of human capital, the risk of disasters could be reduced and the positive potential of disasters for sustainable development realized. However, they have ignored the critical role of the greening shift of innovation in reducing disaster risk as an important driver of sustainable development.…”