NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 25 — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for a tripling of adaptation finance and wider access to early-warning systems as climate shocks increasingly compound hunger, displacement and economic hardship, with East Africa facing a sharp deterioration in food security.Guterres said climate adaptation must be integrated into government policies, budgets and infrastructure decisions, warning that the failure to prepare for climate shocks was turning extreme weather into wider humanitarian and economic crises.“Without adaptation, droughts become hunger crises, storms become debt crises, and heatwaves become killers,” Guterres said, calling for adaptation finance to be tripled and early-warning systems extended to every person on Earth by 2027.His warning comes as food insecurity across six East African countries has nearly tripled over the past decade, rising from 13.9 million people in 2016 to 40.3 million in 2026, according to an analysis by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.The figure represents 34 per cent of the population covered by the analysis, meaning more than one in three people assessed are facing high levels of acute food insecurity.The regional crisis is being driven by a combination of climate shocks, conflict, economic instability and displacement, underscoring the growing pressure on governments and humanitarian agencies to move from emergency response towards prevention and resilience.Charity Mumbua, a food security specialist at IGAD, said the figures should prompt a fundamental shift in how governments and humanitarian agencies respond to food crises.“These are not just statistics. As our deputy executive secretary stated, it is a call for action,” Mumbua said Thursday.Guterres made climate action one of four major tests of power facing the world, alongside war and peace, inequality and the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence.He said the climate crisis represented a profound imbalance between generations, with those least responsible for climate change often suffering its consequences first and most severely.The Secretary-General warned that the world was nearing a breach of the 1.5-degree Celsius temperature limit and said the impacts of climate change were arriving sooner and spreading further than many had anticipated.He called on developed countries to meet their financial commitments to vulnerable nations and specifically urged them to triple adaptation finance and ensure that the Loss and Damage Fund operates at scale.“The present funds available in the Loss and Damage Fund are ridiculously small,” Guterres said.The urgency is particularly evident in East Africa, where climate shocks are already affecting agricultural production and livelihoods.IGAD said failed October-December 2025 rains reduced food production in southeastern Ethiopia, eastern Kenya and much of Somalia, while below-average rainfall elsewhere in the region continued to threaten agricultural production.Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands were among the areas affected, with 4.1 million people, including nearly 429,500 refugees, facing high levels of acute food insecurity between April and June 2026. That represented a 46 per cent increase, or nearly 1.3 million more people, from the 2025 peak.The region now faces a further climate challenge.IGAD said the forecast strengthening of El Niño, together with a positive Indian Ocean Dipole, was expected to bring above-average rainfall to eastern parts of the region during the October-December 2026 season.While the rains could improve crop and livestock production, the agency warned that excessive rainfall could increase flooding risks in parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda.The humanitarian consequences extend beyond food supplies.More than nine million children aged between six and 59 months across the six countries are estimated to need treatment for acute malnutrition, including 2.3 million suffering from severe acute malnutrition and requiring urgent lifesaving treatment.The region is also home to about 19 million forcibly displaced people, including 14.5 million internally displaced people and 4.5 million refugees and asylum-seekers.Sudan remains the region’s largest and most severe food crisis, with 19.5 million people — 41 per cent of its population — projected to face high levels of acute food insecurity between February and May 2026.South Sudan has the highest prevalence, with 55 per cent of its population estimated to face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity between April and July.Guterres said climate finance must focus not only on reducing emissions but also on helping vulnerable countries withstand shocks that are already occurring.He urged governments to invest in resilience, while calling for an approach that anticipates crises rather than waiting for disasters to strike.That approach mirrors IGAD’s call for a shift from emergency response to anticipation and investment.“First, from response to anticipation so that focus triggers finance and action before shocks become crises,” Mumbua said.She also called for a shift “from relief to investment” so that agricultural systems, livelihoods and markets can withstand future shocks, and for stronger regional action because hunger crosses borders.IGAD said inadequate food-security data remained another major obstacle to timely intervention, calling for stronger information systems to support evidence-based decisions.For Guterres, the wider challenge is one of climate justice.He said countries and communities that contributed least to climate change should not be left to bear the greatest costs, while urging those responsible for the largest share of pollution to do more to address the damage.“Polluters must pay,” he said.