UN Chief: El Nino Warming 'Uncharted Territory'

A strengthening El Nino event is pushing the world into "uncharted territory" and amplifying the climate crisis, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned. This weather pattern, which warms Pacific Ocean surface temperatures, is "adding fuel to a planet already on fire." Guterres highlighted that the planet has already experienced a summer of extreme heat domes and wildfires, calling these events a "warm-up act" for what is to come.

The World Meteorological Organization forecasts that nearly every land mass on Earth will be hotter than normal through October, risking the shattering of seasonal records and leading to more severe global effects. Beyond heat, the El Nino is linked to drier conditions in many regions, including parts of South America, South Asia, Africa, and Europe, and below-average monsoons in India. Guterres called for a four-pronged approach: protecting people from heat, making work safer, building resilience into infrastructure, and fundamentally, rolling back fossil fuels that drive planetary heating.