MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Disasters, including those wrought by fiercer storms, are threatening more people and could derail economic progress in the Asia Pacific region if governments don't invest more in disaster mitigation and prevention, a U.N. official said Tuesday.
U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Kamal Kishore, who heads the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, issued the warning in a speech at the start of a regional conference on disaster mitigation hosted by the Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.
"Disasters are now affecting record numbers of people and threatening their lives and livelihoods,” Kishore told hundreds of delegates to the three-day conference in Manila led by ministers in charge of disaster mitigation and response across the Asia Pacific.
"Left unchecked, these disaster risks threaten to derail the development aspirations of the Asia Pacific region and push back progress that has taken decades to achieve,” he said.
Kishore said Asia Pacific countries should regularly dedicate funds in their national budgets for the reduction of disaster risk, and should allocate a larger proportion of foreign development aid to disaster prevention and “not simply response.”
Such investments have brought down death tolls, he said. "They do die, but the mortality is coming down compared to before,” Kishore separately told reporters in an interview on the sidelines of the Manila conference.
Discussions focused on better disaster-warning systems, sharing of technology and building more resilient infrastructure, houses and workplaces.
The Philippines, which is co-hosting the Manila conference, has been in the crosshairs of disasters given its location as an archipelago sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea, where about 20 typhoons and storms blow across each year. It’s also in the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where volcanic eruptions and earthquakes have long been a constant threat.
"These are compounded by the increasing frequencies of hazards brought about by climate change, which makes the Philippines at risk and our landscape even more,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told the conference in a keynote speech.
With better access to financing, technology and data, the most vulnerable states could build better resilience, Marcos said.
European Union Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarćić attended the U.N. disaster-mitigation conference in Manila because he said closer international cooperation was the only way for nations from Asia to Europe to confront “a new reality” of “unprecedented frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters."
“None of us will be able to face these new challenges alone,” Lenarćić told The Associated Press in an interview. “These disasters know no boundaries.”
Since 2020, the EU has allocated more than 80 million euros ($87 million) to the Asia Pacific region to help finance disaster preparedness and mitigation efforts, Lenarćić said, and he urged wealthier countries to contribute more to such campaigns.
"This region has gained a lot of experience in facing disasters, in building resilience, and we would like to learn also the experiences from this region,” he said of the Philippines and other Asian countries. “It’s a two-way street.”
Associated Press journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila in Manila contributed to this report.
European Union Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic gestures during an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
European Union Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic gestures during an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Kamal Kishore, left, gestures beside Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. as he speaks at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Kamal Kishore gestures as he speaks at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Walgreens will close about 1,200 locations over the next three years as the drugstore chain seeks to turnaround a struggling U.S. business that contributed to a $3 billion quarterly loss.
Company shares soared Tuesday after Walgreens detailed the plan and also reported better-than-expected quarterly results.
The company said Tuesday that about 500 stores will close in the current fiscal year and should immediately support earnings and free cash flow. Walgreens didn't say where the store closings would take place.
Company leaders said the initial wave of closings will take place mostly in the back half of its fiscal year, which started last month. Walgreens will prioritize poor-performing stores where the property is owned by the company, or where leases are expiring.
Walgreens operates about 8,500 stores in the United States and a few thousand overseas. All of the stores that will be closed are in the United States.
CEO Tim Wentworth told analysts Tuesday that the majority of its stores, or about 6,000, are profitable and provide the company with a foundation to build on.
“This solid base supports our conviction in a retail pharmacy led model that is relevant to our consumers, and we intend to invest in these stores over the next several years,” said Wentworth, who became CEO nearly a year ago.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. said in late June that they were finalizing a turnaround plan in the U.S., and that it may lead to hundreds of store closings.
The plan announced Tuesday includes 300 store closures approved under a previous cost-cutting plan.
Wentworth said the Walgreens stores that remain will help the company respond more quickly to shifting consumer behavior and buying patterns.
Yet even the Walgreens stores that are performing well are not immune to broader challenges facing traditional drugstore chains, such as intensifying pressure from online outlets and dollar stores, said Neil Saunders, managing director of consulting and data analysis firm GlobalData.
“All these things have the potential to undercut store performance and Walgreens needs to ensure that this does not happen,” Saunders said in an email. “If it doesn’t, the latest slate of store closures will not be the last and Walgreens will enter the dangerous spiral of being an ever-shrinking business.”
Walgreens, like its competitors, has struggled for years with tight reimbursement for the prescriptions it sells as well as the rising costs of operating stores.
Rival CVS Health Corp. is closing 900 stores. Another major chain, Rite Aid Corp., emerged from bankruptcy protection this year after whittling its store count down to about 1,300 locations.
Saunders said that the latest round of closures will raise concerns about emerging pharmacy deserts, parts of the country were people don't have access to a drugstore.
Walgreens also has been backing away from a plan to add primary care clinics next to some stores after an aggressive expansion under previous CEO Rosalind Brewer.
The Deerfield, Illinois, company said in August that it was reviewing its U.S. healthcare business, and it might sell all or part of its VillageMD clinic business. That announcement came less than two years after the company said it would spend billions to expand it.
The company began the year buy cutting the dividend it pays shareholders to raise cash. Six months later, it slashed its forecast for 2024.
Walgreens said Tuesday that its net loss swelled to more than $3 billion in the final quarter of the year, dragged down by U.S. retail and pharmacy sales. It also booked some hefty charges tied to opioid litigation settlements the company had recognized in previous quarters and an equity investment in China.
Adjusted per-share earnings actually topped Wall Street expectations by 3 cents and its quarterly revenue of $35.75 billion easily surpassed analyst projections by nearly $2 billion, according to FactSet.
But Walgreens lost a whopping $8.64 billion this fiscal year, more than $10 per share for investors.
The company said Tuesday that expects adjusted earnings in the new fiscal year to fall between $1.40 and $1.80 per share, with growth in its U.S. healthcare and international businesses countering the U.S. retail pharmacy decline.
For the fiscal 2025, analysts expect adjusted earnings of $1.72 per share.
Walgreens shares jumped more than 13%, or $1.20, to $10.20 after markets opened Tuesday.
The stock had shed nearly two thirds of their value so far this year, falling to $9 as of Monday’s close.
FILE - A Walgreens store in Bradenton, Fla., is shown on Feb. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
