'El Niño turbocharging climate change', warns Gareth Redmond-King

Issued on: 03/06/2026 - FRANCE24

Oliver Farry is pleased to welcome Gareth Redmond-King, Head of the International Programme at the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit. As the World Meteorological Organization warns of a powerful El Niño event and its potentially far-reaching consequences, Redmond-King warns that El Niño should not be viewed as an isolated threat, but rather as an accelerant acting upon an already destabilised climate system. El Niño is "pouring fuel on that particular fire" of climate change. He describes the phenomenon as "turbocharging climate change" by adding heat to a planet that has already warmed by approximately 1.4°C. "It's like we're in a very, very hot room and somebody decides to turn on the heating and light the fire," he observes, illustrating how natural climate cycles become more dangerous in an artificially warmed world.

Video by: Oliver FARRY