‘A new age of climate extremes’: Earth accumulating heat at accelerating rate

Flooding in Chattogram, Bangladesh, in April showed the impact of climate-related weather extremes. Photograph: Md Rafayat Haque Khan/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Flooding in Chattogram, Bangladesh, in April showed the impact of climate-related weather extremes. Photograph: Md Rafayat Haque Khan/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock Increased heat will supercharge extreme weather events, warns UN agency as Cop31 climate summit begins Heat is accumulating in Earth’s systems at an accelerating rate, the UN’s weather agency has reported as the Cop31 climate change summit begins in Turkey, with 2026 on track to be one of the four warmest years on record. The imbalance between incoming energy from the sun and energy leaving Earth reached its highest level since monitoring began, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its State of the Global Climate update. That imbalance and the accumulation of heat will supercharge extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts and tropical cyclones. Around the world, the average surface temperature for January to September 2026 was about 1.47C above the preindustrial average, the agency said. Sea surface temperatures hit monthly records and sea level was the highest since records began. The ocean absorbs 90% of the excess heat trapped 2026 is on track to be a 10th successive year of record ocean heat. View image in fullscreen A centre for people experiencing respiratory difficulties in Palangkaraya, Indonesia. More than 11,000 people have been treated during a months-long wildfire crisis. Photograph: REINA/AFP/“We have entered a new age of climate extremes,” said António Guterres, the UN secretary general. “A supersized El Niño is colliding with a planet already superheated . The human costs keep rising. And those least responsible are suffering first and worst.” Diplomats and world leaders are meeting on Monday in the Turkish resort city of Antalya for the 31st conference of the parties (Cop) to the UN framework convention on climate change. In 1992, when the convention was signed, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas, was 356.42 parts per million (ppm). In 2025 it was 426.8 ppm, the WMO said. Overall, since 1750, the onset of the Industrial Revolution, the concentration has increased 53%. Cop31 must deliver climate progress that people can see is real, host says The WMO reported that ocean heat content estimates indicate Earth’s energy imbalance rose at a rate of 0.3W per sq metre each decade for the period 2001–2025, compared with 0.13W per sq metre between 1960 and 2025.