Kathmandu— An estimated 82% of the world's oceans are currently experiencing marine heat waves, according to Copernicus data as of August 10, 2026, with the World Meteorological Organization warning of unprecedented El Niño conditions that could persist through 2027, triggering extreme weather events and ecological crises from California to South America.

Marine Heat Waves Escalate

According to Copernicus, July 2026 saw exceptionally high temperatures across a large portion of the tropical Pacific, where El Niño conditions are present and forecast to strengthen further. This has led to severe impacts on marine ecosystems, with dead and dying seabirds appearing on Southern California beaches, including brown pelicans, loons, and grebes. Tammy Russell, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, reported that seabirds are "walking to shore and then just die within the hour," with similar patterns observed along South America's Pacific coast.

Sebástian Cruz, Marine Program Coordinator for South America at ABC, noted that seabird strandings and deaths have "exploded" since June, with birds appearing on beaches that had no previous detections, highlighting the "magnitude of this El Niño over such a large expanse of the Pacific."

UN Climate Summit Focus Shifts

The upcoming UNFCCC COP31, scheduled for November 9, 2026, in Antalya, Türkiye, is expected to focus on "actual implementation as well as enforcement" of climate policies aimed at accelerating the global transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. This represents a significant shift from previous COP meetings, which have largely been criticized for lacking concrete action.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that El Niño is "being supersized before our eyes," with sea surface temperatures rising and the planet entering "uncharted waters" where extreme weather risks are escalating. He emphasized that the world is in a "danger zone" and that the race is between rising climate risks and the commitment to take action.

UN Admits Climate Thresholds Exceeded

A new UN Environment Programme report, released September 1, 2026, admits that Earth is soon going to exceed the safe temperature threshold agreed upon in the 2015 Paris climate accord due to warming from fossil fuel emissions. The report states that during the "overshoot period," more people will die or get sick from extreme weather, food production will decline, water shortages will worsen, and economies will suffer.

The report also warns of critical tipping points, including the loss of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, and the shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean circulation system that keeps Europe warm. These cascading effects could have irreversible global consequences.

The World Meteorological Organization has launched a major mobilization with National Meteorological and Hydrological Services to prepare for the exceptional El Niño, stressing that there is "no time to lose" in addressing the escalating climate crisis.

(With inputs from CounterPunch)

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Originally published on abcnews.com.np.