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You are listening to "The Podcast 
Factory Org".

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Welcome to a new episode of "6 
Minutes to Understand" with Pierre

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Léonard, a Midoricast

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feature. Hello Pierre.

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Hello Michel, hello everyone!

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A long holiday break!

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And a long holiday break, 
and a return for which this time,

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rather exceptionally, 
I must admit I feel like taking off

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my facilitator hat to put on my 
activist balaclava.

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Because I don't know about you, 
but this summer really gave me a

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lot of food for thought and made me 
quite beside myself.

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Now, I don't know if you remember 
what you were doing on June

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29, 2026; it was most likely a day 
like any other for you,

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and yet, June 29, 
2026, in Switzerland,

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is a very special day.

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It is Glacier Melt Day.

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Why? Quite simply because that is 
the day all the snow that fell the

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previous winter finished melting.

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And from that date on, 
it is no longer the season's snow

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disappearing, it is the ice itself,

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sometimes centuries old.

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This year, that day came almost as 
early as in 2022,

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the black year for glaciers.

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And you should know that since 
2000,

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Swiss glaciers have lost 40% of 
their volume—yes,

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in 26 years. It is kind of like a 
savings account running in

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reverse, where nobody wants to see 
the balance.

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A little higher up, 
on the peaks, another phenomenon is

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progressing, and not always 
quietly:

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permafrost—that ground that is 
supposed to stay permanently

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frozen—is warming up, 
and entire sections of high

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mountains or glaciers are 
collapsing,

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as we saw recently with the 
disaster in Nepal.

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So, heatwaves, droughts, 
wildfires,

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melting glaciers, 
permafrost thaw—all of this

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punctuated our summer, 
but deep down,

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what does this concretely change 
for us,

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for our organization, 
for our business?

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So, a few facts, 
without exaggeration,

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because reality does a very good 
job of painting the picture all on

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its own. The summer of 2026 broke 
heat records in Western Europe;

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June and July posted an average 
temperature 21.6 degrees above the

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previous record set in 2022.

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Since May, the region has 
experienced four extreme heat

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events, two of them in July alone.

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Cascading results: 
near-generalized drought across

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France, Spain, Germany, 
Belgium, and the United Kingdom,

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with soil drier than in 2022, 
which until now had been the

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benchmark summer.

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It is also the perfect recipe for 
more frequent,

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more intense fires over larger 
areas,

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including in regions that were not 
traditionally vulnerable,

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notably the Écrins in the French 
Alps.

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And at high altitude, 
history repeats itself,

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only worse—as I was saying, 
alpine glaciers,

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permafrost beginning to thaw, 
and so even on Mont Blanc,

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we saw—you may have seen this video 
circulating of a mountaineer

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shielding himself from falling 
rocks on an ascent route on Mont

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Blanc that until then had been 
safe.

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So are we going to say, 
as we see a lot on social media,

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"It's normal, it's summer"?

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Well no, it's not normal, 
it's not an isolated incident.

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All of this is the expected 
hallmark of climate change.

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The more the atmosphere warms, 
the more frequent and early

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heatwaves become, 
the more they fuel droughts,

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which in turn feed wildfires.

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It's a vicious cycle closing in on 
itself and which,

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unlike an economic cycle, 
will not spontaneously reset to

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zero the following year.

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The more we continue to emit CO2, 
the more the situation will

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continue to intensify and worsen.

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So for a company, 
it's no longer just coffee-machine

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talk; it's a matter of operational 
risk.

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I think we'll have already 
understood that somewhat from the

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previous episodes; 
we talked about it.

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And glaciers in particular, 
to come back to that,

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aren't just for show; 
a glacier is a natural reservoir,

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a regulator of stream and river 
flow.

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It stores water in the winter and 
releases it in the summer,

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at the exact moment when 
agriculture,

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consumers, industry, 
hydroelectricity,

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and even nuclear power plants need 
it the most.

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Yet, some Alpine basins could see 
their availability drop by 20 to

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30% by the end of the century, 
obviously with cascading

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consequences for agriculture, 
industrial production,

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cooling power plants, 
as I was saying,

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and even river navigation on 
arteries like the Rhine—that has

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already happened this year.

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So, what is the point of looking 
into this rather than waiting for

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the problem to really come knocking 
at the door?

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First, it allows for anticipation.

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Because anticipating means reducing 
uncertainty.

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A company that maps its 
vulnerabilities,

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its dependence on water, 
on suppliers located in

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water-stressed areas, 
or on river logistics susceptible

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to low water levels, 
can adapt its processes before a

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crisis rather than during it.

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That is what makes the difference 
between deciding calmly on an

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ordinary day and improvising on a 
day of shortages.

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Second, there is a very real 
reputational and commercial

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advantage—it is also enlightened 
self-interest.

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More and more contractors, 
insurers,

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and investors are now demanding an 
analysis of physical climate risks.

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Being able to respond to it, 
rather than discovering the

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question in the middle of 
negotiations and reacting at the

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last minute, becomes a 
differentiator.

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And those risks are not 
theoretical:

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disruptions in water or raw 
material supplies,

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production shutdowns, 
rising energy and insurance costs,

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direct damage to infrastructure 
exposed to fires and floods.

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Ignoring the issue is a bit like 
leaving your umbrella in the closet

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on a day when the sky is turning 
menacingly dark;

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you might get by, 
but is that really a bet you want

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to make, especially when it comes 
to your production facility?

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A few more figures, 
because that is often where

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decisions are made. Between 1980 
and 2021,

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extreme weather events have already 
cost over 560

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billion euros across the European 
Union.

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The Network of Central Banks for 
Greening the Financial System

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estimates the cost of inaction at 
fifteen points of global GDP in

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2050 in the event of a three-degree 
warming;

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by contrast, the estimated cost of 
transition ranges from 0.5 to 1

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point of GDP in 2030.

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In other words, the transition will 
cost up to 30 times less

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than inaction. So the message is 
simple,

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and it's not about scaring you: 
every euro invested now in

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adaptation or emissions reduction 
costs significantly less than that

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same euro spent later in reaction.

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Much like roof maintenance, 
a routine inspection costs a

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fraction of the price of a complete 
overhaul.

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There are two complementary levers 
that we will return to a bit later

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in the season: first, 
mitigation, which consists of

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reducing emissions to prevent the 
situation from worsening.

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And then also adaptation, 
which involves taking steps to

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protect against the effects of 
climate change that are already

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here. In concrete terms, 
where do we start?

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A circularity and physical risk 
assessment remains the most

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effective starting point, 
along with an assessment of your

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vulnerabilities. I'll talk about 
that again in an episode a bit

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further along. Resources, 
eco-design,

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water dependency, 
value chain—these are your areas of

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leverage; these are the things you 
can act upon to build a realistic

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action plan. To delve deeper into 
climate and energy challenges,

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I also warmly recommend "The 
Shifters";

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it is an association that trains 
citizens and decision-makers in

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decarbonizing our economic 
activities.

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And if you want to connect with the 
Belgian ecosystem of impact

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companies active in the transition,

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the KAYA Coalition of Ecopreneurs 
brings together more than a

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thousand committed organizations.

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A shout-out to them, 
by the way (Pierre Léonard: A

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shout-out to them); 
it's thanks to them that we know

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each other.

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Exactly. To sum up, 
this deadly summer is not an

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isolated incident; 
it is a new climate normal.

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So we could almost say, 
"It's normal,

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it's summer now." Well, 
the problem is that it is

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accelerating faster than expected, 
and the good news is that we know

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precisely what to do and that 
action is always cheaper than

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inaction. If you only take one 
thing away from this episode,

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remember this. Thank you for 
joining us for this episode of "6

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Minutes pour comprendre".

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In the next one, 
we will discuss a topic closely

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linked to this one: 
Earth Overshoot Day.

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See you soon.

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