A 2026 United Nations assessment links more comprehensive warning systems with lower disaster mortality and fewer people affected, while finding gaps remain among the world’s most vulnerable nations.
The Global Status of Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems was published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). It counted 136 countries with some multi-hazard warning capability, equal to 70% of countries worldwide and 143% above the level when reporting began in 2015.
The report’s country comparisons showed disaster mortality was 6.1 times lower in places with more comprehensive systems than in those with less-developed capabilities. The more comprehensive group also had 3.2 times fewer people affected by disasters.
Small island developing states had the lowest reported coverage, while least developed countries scored lowest on the overall comprehensiveness of their systems. UNDRR chief Kamal Kishore said countries had made progress, but “too many people remain unprotected.”
El Niño was also part of the report’s context. Anadolu Ajansı reported that the event’s intensification threatened more extreme weather; WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said it could be “literally off our monitoring charts.”
The findings add to EconoTimes’ earlier coverage of early-warning systems and El Niño health risks. For anticipatory action, the report counted frameworks in 75 countries in 2025; the total was 262, 70% higher than a year earlier.
