Super El Niño looms over Cop31 as climate pattern fuels global disasters

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) predicts there will be as many as 3 million displacements across just four countries — Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Uganda — due to this El Niño. File picture: AP/Jerome Delay

If the galloping pace of the climate crisis isn’t enough to spur countries to act at UN climate talks in Turkey, there is another major threat heightening its havoc: The strongest El Niño event in at least 1,000 years.

The “jaw-dropping” El Niño, a naturally recurring phenomenon where the eastern Pacific heats up every few years with temporary but global implications, has provided added urgency to wrangling at the Cop31 summit over climate funding for vulnerable countries that are having to scramble to respond.