El Niño / La Niña Response
What are El Niño and La Niña?
El Niño, the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) started in July-August 2023 and developed rapidly as a strong event during the second part of 2023. El Niño is disrupting weather patterns, causing dry conditions in some parts of the world and excessive rainfall in others.
Millions of people currently suffer from the impacts of droughts, heatwaves, and floods induced by El Niño and exacerbated by the climate crisis. The impacts of El Niño on food security, health and livelihoods are likely to last until at least the second half of 2024.
La Niña corresponds to the cooling phase of ENSO, causing weather disruptions almost in reverse as those of El Niño. Cool, warm and neutral phases of ENSO alternate in cycles of five to seven years.
How is the climate crisis impacting humanitarian action?
Climate-related disasters are rising sharply as global temperatures keep rising. Extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, wildfires and heatwaves increased by 2.5 times in the current decade compared to the 1980s.
The climate crisis acts a threat multiplier, exacerbating humanitarian needs, amplifying situations of conflict, causing mass displacement, intensifying food insecurity and pre-existing vulnerabilities and gender inequalities.
As a result, humanitarian needs are quickly outpacing available response capacity. The number of people requiring humanitarian assistance due to climate-related disasters is projected to double to 200 million by 2050.
UN Climate Crisis Coordinator for the El Niño / La Niña Response
Assistant Secretary-General Reena Ghelani was appointed as Climate Crisis Coordinator for the El Niño / la Niña response by the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator in January 2024.
The role of the Coordinator is to strengthen the response to the impacts of the climate crisis and the current El Niño episode, through advocacy and resource mobilization for the countries most at risk, as well as strengthened coordination via the Inter-Agency Standing Committee.
The Coordinator works closely with Governments and regional institutions, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, international financial institutions and other partners.
Who is Reena Ghelani?
Reena Ghelani is a humanitarian, human rights and international relations specialist with over 25 years of experience working with the United Nations. She served in Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Sri Lanka, among others. Prior to this role, she worked as Director of Operations and Advocacy for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In 2023, she was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as the UN Assistant Secretary-General for the Coordination of Famine Prevention and Response.
An Australian national born in Uganda, Reena Ghelani is a graduate of Monash University and the University of Melbourne in Australia.
