Extreme Heat and Infrastructure: Business Risks and Resilience
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Climate Hub

Extreme Heat and Infrastructure: Business Risks and Resilience

21 September 2026 / Report

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Extreme heat is testing the physical systems on which global business depends: roads rut, rails buckle, bridge components expand, airport pavements and power systems become less efficient. This report examines the infrastructure channel of heat risk and recommends steps businesses can take to build resilience and limit their financial exposure.

Trusted Insights for What’s Ahead®

  • Extreme heat is not just an operational risk but an asset-management issue. Many physical assets such as roads, bridges, runways, and transmission lines were designed using historical temperature ranges. More days of temperatures beyond those ranges accelerate deterioration and raise the probability of service restrictions or failure.
  • Disruption and failure can cost more than physical damage. Repair invoices capture only part of the loss; detours, delayed freight, cancelled flights, lost production, and slower emergency responses can dominate the primary financial and business impact.
  • Targeted adaptation and focused resilience are usually cheaper than blanket hardening across the infrastructure portfolio. The priority is to identify critical, highly exposed assets and upgrade them at renewal and replacement points, using forward-looking temperature data rather than yesterday’s outdated climate projections.
  • Businesses are both owners and users of infrastructure. Companies should harden facilities they control and build contingencies for public roads, power, water, airports, and rail networks they do not directly manage. Comprehensive planning and targeted upgrades can lower the risks of catastrophic failures.
  • Risk assessments for infrastructure are critical. Private and public owners or operators need to identify vulnerabilities and determine intervention and improvement strategies that enhance resilience where the benefits per dollar spent are the greatest.

Extreme heat is testing the physical systems on which global business depends: roads rut, rails buckle, bridge components expand, airport pavements and power systems become less efficient. This report examines the infrastructure channel of heat risk and recommends steps businesses can take to build resilience and limit their financial exposure.

Trusted Insights for What’s Ahead®

  • Extreme heat is not just an operational risk but an asset-management issue. Many physical assets such as roads, bridges, runways, and transmission lines were designed using historical temperature ranges. More days of temperatures beyond those ranges accelerate deterioration and raise the probability of service restrictions or failure.
  • Disruption and failure can cost more than physical damage. Repair invoices capture only part of the loss; detours, delayed freight, cancelled flights, lost production, and slower emergency responses can dominate the primary financial and business impact.
  • Targeted adaptation and focused resilience are usually cheaper than blanket hardening across the infrastructure portfolio. The priority is to identify critical, highly exposed assets and upgrade them at renewal and replacement points, using forward-looking temperature data rather than yesterday’s outdated climate projections.
  • Businesses are both owners and users of infrastructure. Companies should harden facilities they control and build contingencies for public roads, power, water, airports, and rail networks they do not directly manage. Comprehensive planning and targeted upgrades can lower the risks of catastrophic failures.
  • Risk assessments for infrastructure are critical. Private and public owners or operators need to identify vulnerabilities and determine intervention and improvement strategies that enhance resilience where the benefits per dollar spent are the greatest.

Author

Alex Heil

Alex Heil Alex Heil, PhD

Senior Economist, ESF
The Conference Board

Read Bio

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