As climate-related hazards become more frequent, protecting each individual infrastructure is no longer enough to ensure mobility continuity. A power outage, a flood or the failure of an access route can affect an entire service, even when its equipment remains operational.
At the 2026 Movin’On Summit, Chantal Jouanno and Isabelle Spiegel made the case for a systemic approach to resilience: identifying dependencies, balancing performance and robustness, and preparing collectively for crises across territories and value chains.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Decarbonisation and adaptation must be addressed together
Chantal Jouanno highlights the risk of shifting a vulnerability rather than eliminating it. Electrifying mobility reduces dependence on oil, but increases dependence on electricity generation and networks, which are themselves exposed to extreme heat and water stress. “In reality, we are transferring a vulnerability from one sector to another.” - Chantal Jouanno Managing Director Energy Utilities - Accenture The challenge is therefore not to set decarbonisation against adaptation, but to address both simultaneously and examine the points of fragility between systems.
2. Service continuity matters as much as infrastructure robustness
Isabelle Spiegel points out that the economic and operational consequences of a crisis can extend far beyond physical damage. She cites Kansai Airport, which was hit by a storm in 2018, where flooding of electrical equipment and disruption to access routes delayed the return to normal operations. She also refers to flights cancelled in Portugal despite airports’ backup systems continuing to operate during an external power outage. Resilience therefore means defining the essential functions that must be maintained, including under degraded conditions, rather than seeking absolute protection for every piece of equipment.
3. Digital twins and AI clarify trade-offs without replacing decision-makers
Digital twins can map networks, value chains and their vulnerabilities, then test multiple climate scenarios. AI accelerates their development and the use of data. But their effectiveness depends on the quality of the information and assumptions used; they do not make decisions in place of decision-makers. “It is a decision-support tool, but the decision still has to be made.” - Chantal Jouanno Managing Director Energy Utilities - Accenture
4. Crisis preparedness must go beyond each stakeholder’s individual plans
Crisis exercises already exist, but they do not always bring together all stakeholders. The speakers called for cascading impacts, prolonged crises and territorial and industrial interdependencies to be incorporated into preparedness efforts. They also stressed that preventive closure or a temporarily degraded service can help avert a more serious situation. “It is essential to conduct collective crisis-management exercises rather than having everyone work [separately].” Isabelle Spiegel
TENSIONS AND OPEN QUESTIONS
How can the need for immediate performance be reconciled with investments in robustness whose benefits will only emerge over the long term? Which services must remain a priority when degraded operations have to be accepted? And who decides when an operator’s choices affect territories, networks or stakeholders upstream and downstream?
Another question runs through the discussion: how can useful data for crisis prevention and management be shared between public and private stakeholders while protecting confidentiality requirements and everyone’s interests?
PRIORITIES FOR ACTION
Map interdependencies between infrastructure, electricity networks, logistics value chains and essential services to identify hidden vulnerabilities.
Test multiple crisis scenarios, including extreme and combined scenarios, using reliable data, digital twins and AI tools.
Define in advance the priority functions, preventive-closure thresholds and acceptable forms of degraded operation.
Organise collective crisis-management exercises involving operators, value-chain stakeholders, territories and government services.
Establish data-sharing arrangements and common governance principles to accelerate decision-making during a crisis.
