“An extraordinary El Niño phenomenon”: Antonio Guterres calls on COP31 leaders to “rise to the occasion”

The UN Secretary General on Monday called on the leaders of COP31 in Turkey to “rise to the challenge” of the conference, at a time when an “extraordinary” El Niño phenomenon is “colliding” with the consequences of climate change.

“We have entered a new era of climate extremes. An extraordinary El Niño phenomenon collides with a planet already overheated by human-caused climate change (...) Leaders must rise to the occasion: by reducing emissions faster, accelerating a just transition away from fossil fuels and providing vulnerable countries with the financing and protection they need,” declared António Guterres in a statement released before the opening of the UN climate conference in Antalya (Turkey).

The leaders present at COP31 “must rise to the occasion: by reducing emissions more quickly, by accelerating a just transition away from fossil fuels and by providing vulnerable countries with the financing and protection they need,” he added in this press release accompanying the latest report on the state of the climate from the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The last 12 years were the warmest on record

According to this report, the year 2026 is part of a “long series of world records”, both in terms of temperature, ice melt and sea level rise. This year also marks the arrival of a “very intense El Niño episode which is expected to further increase heat and intensify extreme weather conditions until 2027”, announces the organization. The WMO says the last 12 years have been the warmest on record, with the last four taking the top four spots.

According to the organization, sea levels are the highest on record and sea surface temperatures have reached monthly records in 2026. At the same time, the long-term retreat of glaciers continues. As for fresh water reserves, they have been dwindling since 2014. And between January and September 2026, the average surface temperature of the globe was around 1.47°C higher than the pre-industrial average, an average comparable to that of 2025 (1.43°C) and 2023 (1.46°C), but lower than the record of 2024 (1.55°C).

“El Niño will increase the risks”

“This figure is expected to increase by the end of the year due to the warming associated with El Niño, which has intensified since August and is expected to break the record for the most intense episode in December,” warned the organization. Typically, this phenomenon causes global average annual temperatures to rise by around 0.1°C to 0.2°C. And it is usually during the year following its onset that El Niño has the greatest impact on global average temperatures.

“El Niño and more broadly the state of the global climate in 2026 redefine the expression extraordinary (...) We are amplifying weather conditions and El Niño will increase the risks. Heat waves, tropical cyclones and rainstorms are intensifying faster than our historical baselines prepared us for,” warned WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

In this context, WMO emphasizes the importance of forecasts supported by continuous observations from all regions of the world. “The good news is that the number of countries reporting that they have multi-hazard early warning systems has increased from 56 in 2015 to 136 in 2025,” welcomes the report.