IRENA Insights: Enhancing Resilience: Climate-Proofing Power Infrastructure

Why It Matters

Without proactive resilience investments, utilities face escalating outage costs and societal disruption, while governments risk jeopardizing economic growth and public safety in a climate‑impacted future.

Key Takeaways

• Extreme weather events causing massive power outages worldwide
• 80% of US outages since 2000 linked to weather
• Power system resilience defined as limiting severity and duration
• Ten actionable steps proposed to climate‑proof electricity infrastructure
• Proactive policy, funding, and cost‑benefit analysis essential for resilience

Summary

The IRENA webinar highlighted the urgent need to climate‑proof power infrastructure as extreme weather events become more frequent and severe. Speakers cited 2025’s 103 tropical storms, 20 of them major, and noted that electricity will account for over 52% of final energy consumption by 2050, making reliable power essential for economic stability. Key insights underscored that 80% of major U.S. outages from 2000‑2023 were weather‑related, and that vulnerabilities exist across the entire power value chain—from fuel‑supply disruptions at generation sites to overhead line failures in transmission and distribution. Aging assets amplify these risks, demanding a systematic mapping of threats to prioritize resilience measures. Illustrative examples included Ireland’s January 2025 storm AoE, which left 768,000 customers without power, and Valencia’s October 2024 floods that knocked out electricity for 180,000 people. The presenters referenced SIGRA’s definition of resilience—limiting the severity and duration of system degradation—and showed how mobile energy‑storage units can accelerate recovery compared with traditional “fix‑it‑when‑it‑breaks” approaches. The report proposes ten concrete actions, ranging from detailed climate‑risk assessments and cost‑benefit analyses to national policy integration and innovative financing. Implementing these steps can translate into billions of dollars in avoided losses and protect lives, offering utilities, investors, and governments a clear roadmap to safeguard the energy system against a new climate‑driven normal.

Original Description

Climate change is intensifying risks to power systems worldwide, threatening critical infrastructure and the reliable supply of electricity. Strengthening resilience is essential as extreme weather events and long-term stressors, such as rising temperatures, place increasing pressure on power networks—especially as electrification accelerates across sectors.

This session draws on IRENA’s Enhancing Resilience: Climate-proofing Power Infrastructure report, highlighting practical approaches to integrating climate considerations into the planning, design and operation of power assets. It explored global case studies, key vulnerabilities in power systems and the policy, regulatory and investment actions needed to build more resilient and sustainable energy systems.

To read the full report: https://www.irena.org/Publications/2025/Dec/Enhancing-resilience-Climate-proofing-power-infrastructure

For more on the Insights Webinar Series: https://www.irena.org/Events/2020/Jun/IRENA-Insights