El Niño Is Here. What Can We Do Before the Worst Impacts Arrive?
El Niño is already here.
And unlike many of the climate risks we spend our time discussing, we have meaningful warning about what may come next.
The current El Niño is strengthening rapidly. Forecasts indicate that it could become one of the strongest events on record during the coming months.
Exactly what that will mean in any particular place remains uncertain. El Niño changes the probability of drought, flooding, extreme rainfall, heat, crop disruption, and other impacts differently across regions.
But that uncertainty is not an argument for waiting.
It is an opportunity to prepare.
Food systems can protect crops and livestock. Water managers can prepare for drought or flooding. Health systems can anticipate changing disease and nutrition risks. Businesses can examine vulnerable supply chains. Insurers and financial institutions can think about where losses are likely to concentrate. Governments and humanitarian organizations can move resources before communities reach crisis.
The question is whether we actually do any of it in time.
That is the premise behind El Niño Ready, a volunteer campaign trying to move the conversation from awareness to anticipatory action.
Because the real test of forecasting is not whether we correctly predict a crisis.
It is whether knowing earlier changes what we do.
This session will begin with a short, plain-language briefing on what we know about the current El Niño, what forecasters expect over the coming months, where uncertainty remains, and what kinds of impacts different regions may face.
Then we will turn the room into a working session.
What can you do now that would be much harder to do once the impacts arrive?
Maybe you work with a city.
A food system.
A humanitarian organization.
A health program.
An investment portfolio.
A supply chain.
A water utility.
A community organization.
A country particularly exposed to El Niño.
Bring that context into the room.
The objective is not to leave knowing more about El Niño.
It is to leave having decided what you might actually do about it.
What to expect
A short briefing followed by a practical working conversation among approximately 20–30 people.
We will separate what is reasonably well established from what remains uncertain, then work through the implications for the communities, organizations, systems, and investments represented in the room.
Participants will compare risks, identify actions that can still be taken before major impacts unfold, and find other people working on similar challenges.
This is not a conversation about whether climate preparedness matters.
It is a chance to practice it while there is still time.
Who this is for
This session is for people responsible for communities, systems, programs, investments, and infrastructure that could be affected by El Niño, including people working across food and agriculture, water, health, humanitarian response, climate adaptation, insurance, finance, supply chains, energy, government, philanthropy, and community resilience.
You do not need to be an El Niño expert. You need to have something you care about protecting.
What you will get out of it
A clear briefing on what is currently known about the 2026–27 El Niño and where meaningful uncertainty remains
A way to translate a global climate forecast into practical questions for your own community, organization, portfolio, or system
A short list of actions worth considering before major impacts arrive
Examples of anticipatory action across food, water, health, infrastructure, finance, and emergency preparedness
Connections with other people in the room preparing for similar risks