UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday urged the world to protect every person on Earth with early warnings by the end of 2027. He spoke at a high-level event on the Early Warnings for All initiative at the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Türkiye. The conference runs until Nov. 20.

“No one should lose their life simply because a warning came too late – or never came at all,” Guterres said.

His appeal came as the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released a new report. The report, Global Status of Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems 2026, shows that 136 countries, or 70% of the total, now report having multi-hazard early warning systems. That is 17 more than in March 2025.

The report finds that countries with substantial to comprehensive systems record disaster-related deaths 6.1 times lower than countries with limited to moderate ones. It also finds 3.2 times fewer people affected. In 2025, 146 anticipatory action activations in 54 countries reached 9.6 million people, the report found. Anticipatory action means acting before a disaster strikes.

The report gives several examples of warnings at work. After a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula in July 2025, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued its first threat messages within 10 minutes. Japan evacuated about 1.9 million people. In Ecuador’s Galápagos islands, more than 2,300 people were moved out of high-risk areas hours before waves of about 1.3 metres reached the shore.

In Madagascar, an early action plan developed by the Malagasy Red Cross was partially activated before Tropical Cyclone Gezani made landfall in February. About 600 door-to-door visits reached 80,000 to 100,000 people with warnings and evacuation support. In Rwanda’s Karongi district, a tea farmer and her daughters were warned through women’s cooperatives, text messages, local radio and loudspeakers that heavy rain was expected within 48 hours. That gave her time to reinforce her terraces, clear water channels and store her dried tea leaves.

Guterres said around one in three countries still has no early warning system. He said the widest gaps are in least developed countries, small island developing States and countries affected by conflict. He also said some European countries have more weather stations that meet global standards than the entire continent of Africa.

WMO chief Celeste Saulo warned that the current El Niño “could be literally off our monitoring charts”. She said El Niño cannot be stopped, but many of its worst human consequences can be prevented.

Guterres set out three priorities: making early warnings a permanent public service, closing gaps in financing and capacity, and moving from fragmented projects to coordinated, long-term support for country-led plans. He said some $2 billion has been mobilised since 2022 and around 160 countries are receiving support. He said finance must cover the entire warning chain, from forecasting to communication tools to volunteers.

Kamal Kishore, head of UNDRR, said countries have made significant progress in strengthening their systems, but too many people remain unprotected.