By Lisa Nikolau for Humanosphere

NEW YORK — World leaders need to focus on helping to protect those communities that are most vulnerable to the effects of El Niño and other climate threats, said Mary Robinson, former Irish president and U.N. special envoy for El Niño and climate, at a U.N. event in New York on Sunday.

“The El Niño impacts are a window into a future that I call the ‘new normal,’” said Robinson. “And it’s going to continue to be worse and worse in poor countries, in poor communities, and therefore, we need to get real about dealing with it.”