Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
The world will not accept anything but strong commitments towards ending climate chaos
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres says COP26 must be a ‘turning point for people and planet’
A fire burns down a hillside in Plumas County, California, in August 2021

LEADERS at the Cop26 summit have been told that the world will not accept anything but strong commitments towards ending climate chaos as UN experts revealed that the last seven years have been the hottest on record.

In its annual “state of the global climate” report, launched as the UN summit got under way in Glasgow yesterday, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said that 2021 is likely to have been the fifth to seventh hottest year on record, with sea levels and destructive weather extremes rising to new highs.

WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas said that extreme weather events are now the new normal, with mounting evidence that some bear the footprint of human-induced climate change.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Attendees listen to Brazil’s President Lula during Cop30
Features / 18 November 2025
18 November 2025

From summit to summit, imperialist companies and governments cut, delay or water down their commitments, warn the Communist Parties of Britain, France, Portugal and Spain and the Workers Party of Belgium in a joint statement on Cop30

FRESH THINKING NEEDED: Brazilian firefighters walk outside the venue for the Cop30 UN Climate Summit, in Belem, Brazil
Features / 11 November 2025
11 November 2025

Reaching co-operation is supposed to be the beginning, not the end, of global climate governance, argues LISA VANHALA

Exctintion Rebellion activists protest in Cambridge, May 10, 2025 [Pic: Derek Langley]
Ecological Breakdown / 11 May 2025
11 May 2025
Grant Douglas pauses while evacuating as a wildfire reaches
Britain / 30 December 2024
30 December 2024
Governments must dramatically slash emissions and support the transition to a renewable future in 2025, UN says