The United Nations issued a stark warning Thursday that an intensifying El Niño climate event will persist until February 2027, threatening economies worldwide.
UN Secretary General António Guterres declared that El Niño was being “supersized before our eyes,” signaling an escalating crisis with broad economic consequences.
“The world is in the danger zone of extreme weather,” Guterres said, adding that “the race now is between rising risks and our commitment to take climate action and protect people.”
Celeste Saulo, secretary general of the UN’s World Meteorological Organization, warned the event “has the potential to deliver a massive blow to communities and economies across the world.”
“We are already seeing disruption and devastation from droughts and floods and we expect these impacts to increase as El Niño intensifies,” Saulo added.
Countries across Asia-Pacific and Latin America are already bearing the brunt of the climate pattern’s immediate impact, with disruptions rippling through global supply chains.
Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are experiencing erratic weather and drought conditions, with an August Oxfam report linking severe crop losses directly to the intensifying El Niño pattern.
El Salvador declared a state of emergency on August 25 as drought conditions spread nationally, while Indonesia simultaneously battles devastating wildfires linked to the same climate event.
India faces a weakened monsoon season expected to suppress the growth of rice, sugar, cotton, and soybean crops, threatening one of the world’s most critical agricultural regions.
Officials in Peru report that fishing of anchovy, a key ingredient in global livestock feed, has suffered what they describe as a “devastating blow” due to shifting ocean conditions.
Sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific reached more than 2 degrees Celsius above normal in July and climbed between 2.2 and 2.6 degrees above normal from late July through mid-August.
The WMO’s latest research found subsurface ocean temperatures exceeded 8 degrees Celsius above average during July and early August, levels the organization described as showing “even more exceptional warmth.”
Commodity markets face severe pressure across corn, cocoa, coffee, and energy sectors as the weather pattern disrupts production and transportation networks across multiple continents.
Extreme weather is expected to produce unpredictable effects on energy generation, with potential disruption to hydropower, wind, solar output, oil and gas production, and mining operations worldwide.
El Niño is a naturally occurring climate pattern defined by sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rising at least 0.5 degrees Celsius above the long-term average, oscillating with La Niña every two to seven years.
