The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has warned that 2027 could become the hottest year on record, as a strong El Niño is expected to trigger further extreme heat and intensify climate-related disasters worldwide.
The warning comes as world leaders gather for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP31, in Turkey, amid growing concerns over rising global temperatures and the worsening impacts of climate change.
WMO Secretary-General, Celeste Saulo, said that El Niño could further aggravate existing climate risks, noting that heatwaves, tropical cyclones and rainstorms were intensifying at a faster rate than historical patterns.
A new WMO report on the state of the global climate revealed that each of the last 12 years had been the warmest since records began, while the last four years ranked as the four hottest on record.
According to the report, the average global surface temperature between January and September 2026 was approximately 1.47 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The report noted that the margin of uncertainty stood at 0.13 degrees Celsius, indicating that the world may have already exceeded the critical 1.5-degree Celsius threshold. Global temperatures last surpassed that benchmark in 2024.
The WMO further disclosed that climate-driven extreme weather events had continued to cause devastating consequences across different regions of the world this year.
Preliminary estimates indicated that heatwaves, drought and wildfires across Europe resulted in more than 30,000 excess deaths in 2026.
The organisation also noted that extreme heat in India in April affected approximately 146.5 million people, while more than 1,300 people reportedly died following a glacier collapse and flash flood in the Himalayas in August.
The WMO warned that the accelerating impacts of climate change emphasizes the urgent need for stronger global climate action and measures to protect vulnerable communities from increasingly severe weather events.
