The heat is on: why resilience starts with a shared understanding of risk

Watching the mercury climb towards 40°C during the launch of Swiss Re's new initiative, “Resilient Switzerland”, I was reminded that childhood summers spent in Italy gave me a slightly different relationship with heat than many of my colleagues in Zurich. In my memories, a hot afternoon in the south is part of life’s rhythm.

Amid calls from Swiss teachers’ unions to address overheated classrooms and transportation delays that came as high temperatures deformed railway tracks; however, it is clear the heat that Switzerland is experiencing today is not simply the arrival of summer as we once knew it. The data tells us things have changed: hot days above 30°C have increased from around five per year in 1990 to about 10–15 today.

As we gathered for the summit at the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue in Rüschlikon, Switzerland, news that the Beznau nuclear plant would have to cut power production due to the heat added to the timeliness of discussions at our first Swiss Resilience Day. We convened municipalities, cantons, federal representatives, businesses, academia and civil society around one question: how do we move the dial on our understanding of Switzerland's resilience and risks?

Switzerland remains one of the most stable countries in the world. Even so, that stability does not make us immune to risk – or sheltered from the need to build greater resilience. Events in recent years have thrown this into sharp relief. The Blatten rock and ice avalanche of May 2025, which scientists believe may be linked to melting permafrost, resulted in an insured loss of ca. CHF 320 million. More recently, heat has caused a motorway to rupture in the Rhine Valley.

Average surface temperatures in Switzerland between 2015 and 2024 were about 2.8°C above pre-industrial levels, compared with 2.2°C for Europe and 1.2°C globally. Put simply, Switzerland is getting hotter, faster than the rest of Europe and the planet. These are not just numbers but snapshots of changing conditions for families, schools, hospitals, municipalities and businesses.

Risks like extreme heat are complex, exemplifying why resilience can no longer be built in silos. Take heat. It is a health risk, particularly for older people, vulnerable groups and those living in dense urban areas. Recent estimates from BMC Global and Public Health show that heat is already costing the Swiss hospital system CHF 20.6 million annually – a conservative estimate which future projections suggest is likely to escalate sharply.

But heat goes further. It is also an infrastructure risk – for railways, roads, buildings, power systems and public spaces designed for a cooler past. It is a risk where the burden is often not shared equally. And it is a governance risk, because effectively adapting to extreme heat depends on decisions made across different levels of responsibility.

At Swiss Re, we have spent more than 160 years analysing risk. Our Swiss roots combined with our global perspective give us both an opportunity and a responsibility: to help make risk more visible, comparable and actionable. As such, we believe we have a role to play in building Switzerland's resilience – to help the right stakeholders and decision-makers find each other.

That is what “Resilient Switzerland” is designed to do. At Swiss Re, we seek to serve as translators of risk, bringing together scientific insight, public-sector engagement, private-sector expertise and the lived experience of communities. By developing a shared understanding of risk, we can make better decisions: where to invest, which measures to prioritise, how to protect vulnerable people, and how to avoid solving one problem while creating another.

The discussions at our Resilience Day showed why this matters. Local examples from municipalities and their partners demonstrated what heat resilience looks like on the ground. Our workshops and panels explored many topics, including which resilience measures and partnerships have so far proven effective, and where progress has slowed and why.

What connects these discussions is this important principle: while resilience is created locally – with municipalities close to the people, infrastructure and public space most impacted – it cannot be left to local actors alone. They need to be supported by strong partners, usable data and a common language of risk.

This is also where the insurance and reinsurance sector can contribute. Insurance cannot solve heat on its own, but risk transfer, risk modelling and the price signals sent by insurance that help quantify risk can all support prevention, adaptation and recovery. Our task is to bring those capabilities into a wider conversation.

Resilience is a continuous task, one that's never completed. From our discussions in Rüschlikon to municipalities across the country, the next step is to translate our growing understanding into shared action.

As I mentioned at the beginning, heat has long been part of my life’s rhythm, but I can see how the tempo – like the mercury in our thermometers - has accelerated, in Switzerland and beyond. The same is true for many other risks. And keeping up with the beat demands working together.