Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said the current El Niño is likely to peak at levels above the warmest observed since reliable records began in 1950, which would make it the strongest event on record. Pacific Ocean temperature change has already exceeded 2 degrees Celsius in six months, breaking earlier records, and the event is forecast to keep strengthening into late spring and summer. Scientists say climate change has made record-strength events far more likely. For Australia, El Niño usually brings hotter and drier conditions to the south and east, raising the risk of heatwaves, drought and bushfires. The United Nations has warned that a record El Niño is approaching, with effects expected to ripple across the Pacific and beyond.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of the Army announced a proposed rule on September 4 that would strip federal Clean Water Act protections from most wetlands in the United States. The measure goes further than an initial proposal from November and follows the Supreme Court's 2023 Sackett decision narrowing federal authority over waterways. Environmental groups said millions of acres that filter drinking water and buffer floods would lose protection, and the Environmental Defense Fund warned of higher flood risk. Farmers, ranchers and rural landowners welcomed the plan as a limit on federal intrusion. A 30-day public comment period opens once the rule is published in the Federal Register, and lawsuits are widely expected.
Children born in New York City scored higher on early thinking and learning tests as the air their mothers breathed during pregnancy became cleaner, according to a 20-year study from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, published in the journal Environmental Health. Researchers followed more than 1,000 mother-child pairs in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx from 1998 to 2020, tracking exposure to fine particles, nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants across three groups of participants. As pollution declined after the city adopted clean-air and climate policies, children's cognitive development scores at ages 1, 2 and 3 climbed. The team calls it the first study to link cleaner air policy with improved early brain development.
A study published in the journal Science found that China's solar power boom has reduced bird diversity: across 2,344 counties studied from 2014 to 2023, stronger pro-solar policies were tied to a 2.1 percent drop in a bird diversity index. Solar farms cleared cropland and grassland that birds rely on for food and nesting, with the worst losses in wealthier, non-desert regions. Resident and migratory birds both declined, while mountain species were largely unaffected. The authors call the trade-off a "green dilemma" and urge strict biodiversity safeguards and careful siting, on desert, degraded land or rooftops, as China keeps expanding its solar fleet.
The world is now certain to overshoot the 1.5 degree Celsius warming limit set in the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Environment Programme said in a report released this week. The report, called Limiting Overshoot, is the UN's first attempt to map how countries could push global temperatures back down after crossing the threshold. It describes an "overshoot, peak and decline" pathway: rapid emissions cuts to reach net zero, followed by net-negative emissions that would gradually cool the planet again. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this summer's heatwaves, wildfires and floods were a warning, and that the overshoot must be made as small and short as possible. The report warns of irreversible tipping points, including the destabilization of major ice sheets, the degradation of the Amazon rainforest and the weakening of Atlantic ocean currents, and it says some losses will be permanent even if warming is later reversed.
A new study based on coral records from the Galápagos Islands finds that El Niño events have become nearly 40% stronger since the preindustrial era. The research shows that climate change is supercharging the natural climate pattern that drives floods, droughts, and heat waves around the world. The authors say the finding helps explain why recent El Niño years have produced such extreme weather. Stronger El Niño events can raise global temperatures, disrupt rainfall across Asia and the Americas, and damage the same coral reefs used to track them. The strongest events now reach levels unseen in the historical record, the study says. Scientists say the trend is likely to continue as the planet warms, and they call for better preparation in the regions most affected by El Niño-driven extremes.
A Paris court has ordered TotalEnergies to disclose the climate risks linked to emissions from its oil and gas products and to set out measures to address them. The June 25 ruling, filed under France's 2017 corporate duty of vigilance law, gives the company six months to submit an updated vigilance plan, with a follow-up hearing set for January 2027. The court stopped short of ordering production cuts, making the decision a partial victory for the NGOs and the city of Paris that brought the case in 2020. The city called it a landmark in French climate law, extending corporate responsibility to product-use emissions.
The world's oceans are running hotter than ever measured. The Copernicus Climate Change Service says daily global sea surface temperature has reached its highest level since records began, with El Niño helping to supercharge warming. Scientists describe the ocean as under unprecedented strain, and the heat is already showing up in coral bleaching, stronger storms, and shifting fisheries. Warmer oceans also absorb less carbon dioxide, weakening one of the planet's natural safety valves for climate change. Researchers warn that record ocean heat is not a one-off anomaly but a pattern that will continue as greenhouse gas emissions keep rising. Governments face growing pressure to cut emissions faster.
Wildfires burning across Indonesia since July have blanketed West Kalimantan province on Borneo in thick smoke and ash, forcing schools to close and sending thousands of people to clinics with breathing problems. Residents in Kubu Raya say they have never seen a fire season this bad in 15 years. Health workers report a surge in bronchitis and other respiratory conditions, with pregnant women and children among the most vulnerable. The city of Pontianak is also facing a clean water crisis, with seawater being used for daily needs. Fire hot spots have nearly doubled overnight in some areas, and Indonesian authorities have charged 72 people in connection with the fires. The blazes have also threatened an orangutan rehabilitation center housing more than 60 critically endangered Bornean orangutans.
The world's oceans are warmer than ever recorded, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Daily global sea surface temperature has reached its highest level since records began, as a strong El Niño adds to long-term warming. The agency said the ocean is under unprecedented strain. Warmer oceans fuel stronger storms, bleach coral reefs, and speed up sea level rise. Marine heat waves have hit the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Mediterranean this year. Scientists say the combination of greenhouse gas emissions and El Niño is pushing the climate system into new territory. The record comes weeks after several countries reported their hottest months on land. Researchers warn that ocean heat is a warning signal for the whole planet, because the sea absorbs most of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases.