The world is entering a new reality where climate extremes are the norm, the United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned on Monday (November 9, 2026), urging leaders at the COP31 climate conference in Turkiye to “get serious”.
The global average surface temperature between January and September this year was around 1.47 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, the WMO said. “We have entered a new age of climate extremes. As leaders gathered in Antalya for the UN climate summit, Mr.
“A supersized El Nino is colliding with a planet already superheated by manmade climate change,” the UN secretary general said in a statement. Guterres called on them to “get serious by cutting emissions faster, accelerating a just transition from fossil fuels and delivering the finance and protection vulnerable countries need”. “What we are seeing gives new meaning to the phrase off the charts,” WMO chief Celeste Saulo told reporters in Geneva, cautioning that the current exceptionally strong El Nino could unleash more heat and extreme weather well into next year.
The naturally occurring weather phenomenon releases heat from the ocean, which this year has been the warmest ever measured, Saulo pointed out.
Preliminary data shows 2026 figuring among the four hottest years on record, WMO climate information chief John Kenned told reporters, adding though that “with the El Nina developing, we might see when the final numbers come in that we’re close to the top”.
