The United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, has warned that the climate crisis has evolved into a global health emergency, with extreme heat, toxic air pollution and climate-related disasters increasingly threatening human lives and overwhelming health systems.
He said rising temperatures were creating serious health risks for pregnant women, newborns and mothers, describing the effects of extreme heat on maternal and newborn health as an unfolding health disaster.
Stiell also warned that the developing El Niño phenomenon could worsen climate impacts, urging governments to accelerate the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy to protect public health and reduce energy costs.
He spoke on Monday at a press conference organised by the World Meteorological Organisation during the ongoing 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP31, in Antalya, Türkiye, where the organisation presented its State of the Climate Update 2026.
The UN climate chief said hundreds of millions of people across southern Asia were being exposed to extreme heat, while heatwaves in northern Europe had reportedly caused an estimated 50,000 deaths.
Stiell said the continued burning of coal, oil and gas, alongside widespread forest destruction, remained major drivers of the crisis and its growing health consequences.
He called for increased investment in electrification and renewable energy, noting that cleaner energy could reduce air pollution and lower costs for households, businesses and governments, including healthcare institutions.
Stiell added that COP31 provided an opportunity for governments to advance practical climate solutions, stressing that health would remain central to negotiations under the leadership of Türkiye and Australia.
Also speaking, the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation, Celeste Saulo, said the agency’s latest climate assessment showed that global temperatures and other major climate indicators continued to reach unprecedented levels.
Saulo disclosed that the past 12 years had been the warmest on record, with the most recent four years, including 2026, ranking as the hottest.
She said the global average temperature between January and September 2026 was approximately 1.47 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.
The WMO chief warned that the developing El Niño could push global temperatures even higher in 2027, explaining that the phenomenon typically has its strongest influence on global temperatures in the year following its development.
She described the 2026/2027 El Niño as unusually strong, saying it differed from previous events monitored by the organisation.
Saulo further disclosed that ocean heat content had reached a new record for the 10th consecutive year, while global sea levels had also risen to unprecedented levels, increasing the vulnerability of about 900 million people living in low-lying coastal areas.
She said extreme weather events, including heatwaves, tropical cyclones and intense rainstorms, were becoming increasingly severe, exposing millions of people to dangerous temperatures and other climate-related hazards.
The WMO Secretary-General called for greater investment in weather monitoring and early warning systems, noting that the number of countries reporting multi-hazard early warning systems had increased from 56 in 2015 to 136 in 2025.
She stressed that sustained investment in weather observations and reliable data remained essential to improving forecasts and saving lives.
Meanwhile, the Director of Climate and Health at the Wellcome Trust, Dr Alan Dangour, said air pollution linked to fossil fuels and extreme heat were estimated to cause more than three million deaths annually.
Dangour warned that climate change was also threatening food security, sanitation and the livelihoods of farmers and outdoor workers, noting that extreme drought affected nearly 52 per cent of the world’s land for at least one month in 2025.
He said investments in clean energy, electrification, heat early warning systems and climate adaptation could help reduce climate-related deaths and healthcare expenditure.
The Wellcome Trust official disclosed that the Climate and Health Funders Coalition, established at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, had provided more than 225 million dollars in its first year to support initiatives addressing extreme heat, air pollution, climate-sensitive infectious diseases and data systems.
He added that the coalition had secured another 150 million dollars in funding commitments from existing and new partners.
On maternal health, Dangour said Wellcome and its partners had launched a global call to action at the Pre-COP31 meeting in Fiji to develop guidelines, public information, health plans and data systems to protect pregnant women from extreme heat.
He urged governments and businesses to prioritise the health and safety of vulnerable groups, particularly children, pregnant women, outdoor workers and older persons, in their climate response strategies.
Dangour added that the effectiveness of climate action should be measured not only by emissions reductions and temperature targets but also by the number of lives saved and improvements in public health outcomes.
