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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that the world had entered a new era of climate extremes, urging global leaders at the COP31 climate summit in Türkiye to take urgent action to curb emissions and support vulnerable countries.
“A supersized El Nino is colliding with a planet already superheated by manmade climate change,” Guterres said in a statement, adding, “We have entered a new age of climate extremes.”
As world leaders gathered in Antalya for the UN climate conference, he called for faster emission cuts, an accelerated and just transition away from fossil fuels, and increased financial support and protection for climate-vulnerable nations.
His warning came as the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) released a report showing that 2026 has continued a period of exceptional global temperatures, melting ice and rising sea levels.
The past 12 years have been the 12 warmest on record, the WMO said, adding that 2026 is expected to rank among the hottest years ever recorded.
“What we are seeing gives new meaning to the phrase off the charts,” WMO chief Celeste Saulo told reporters in Geneva, warning that the exceptionally strong El Nino could fuel further warming and extreme weather well into next year.
“We should prepare for another record-breaking year in 2027,” she said.
The global average surface temperature between January and September 2026 was around 1.47 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, according to the WMO.
The current El Nino, potentially the strongest since at least 1950, could push temperatures even higher by the end of the year.
John Kennedy, the WMO’s climate information chief, said preliminary data placed 2026 among the four hottest years on record, although the final ranking could change as more data becomes available.
El Nino is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that releases heat from the ocean and raises global temperatures. The WMO said ocean temperatures had already reached record levels this year.
The phenomenon is declared when sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific rise at least 0.5 degrees Celsius above average. From now through January, temperatures could reach 3.8 degrees above average, Saulo said.
The WMO also reported that global sea levels had reached a record high, freshwater resources were declining and glaciers continued to retreat.
In 2025, the annual loss of glacier ice was equivalent to filling five Olympic-sized swimming pools every second, the agency said.
“We are supercharging our weather and El Nino will be a risk multiplier,” Saulo said, warning that heatwaves, tropical cyclones and rainstorms were intensifying faster than historical climate projections had anticipated.
However, the agency noted progress in climate preparedness, with the number of countries having essential multi-hazard early warning systems increasing from 55 in 2015 to 136 in 2025.
The WMO urged COP31 participants to increase investment in sustained global observations, data collection and forecasting to strengthen such warning systems.
“We cannot afford to fly blind,” Saulo said.
