EMEA 2026 Predictions, Preparedness, Performance Under Pressure
Resilience has become a discipline. As extreme weather rewrites historical norms, businesses in Europe are assessing their readiness for the unknown, balancing a rapid digital expansion, stricter regulations and relentless margin pressure. Ad hoc responses won’t cut it, so preparedness must be embedded long before disruptions occur, say our FM experts.
This year, they anticipate greater volatility in floods, wind and heat; tighter battery and fire-testing requirements from authorities; and strained capacity for mega-assets – unless engineering-led prevention reduces risk. Competitive advantage will come from anticipating these challenges and acting early, they say.
Here, our EMEA specialists share pragmatic predictions for the year ahead, spanning extreme weather, claims readiness, infrastructure design and emerging risks in battery technologies across data centres and advanced manufacturing.
Prevention as capital investment
Loïc Le Dréau,
senior vice president, director of the EMEA division
In 2026, companies will treat prevention as capital investment, embedding climate, cyber and industrial fire protection into how sites are planned, built and run. We saw significant losses in 2025 linked to climate-related hazards and technological incidents. In response, the focus this year and beyond should be on:
- Amplifying resilience to major risks, such as fire, business interruption and equipment breakdown.
- Accelerating climate risk prevention.
- Managing intensifying digital/technological risks.
Climate change remains a primary concern. More than 60% of companies report exposure to significant climate events, consistent with FM’s Natural Disasters Report (NatHaz) findings that 62% of risk decisionmakers suffered severe disruption from extreme weather in the past three years.
To bridge the protection gap, in 2025 FM offered an enhanced resilience credit of up to 10% of premiums to eligible clients, helping our insureds to invest in protective measures against flood, hail and heat. The enhanced FM resilience credit could promote an additional US$35 billion in annual loss expectancy reductions. This credit also supports clients in enhancing their resilience to major operational risks, including fires and equipment breakdowns.
For 2026 and beyond, last year we introduced the Enterprise Resilience Report. Utilizing FM’s unique algorithm powered by proprietary data, advanced analytics and nearly 200 years of engineering expertise, this report delivers unmatched insights. It combines climate and operational exposures, including human element, fire protection, and boiler and machinery recommendations, to give clients a complete view of their property risk landscape, supporting smarter, longer-term resilience decisions.
Natural hazards are up against data growth
Digital infrastructure growth compounds these pressures. Global data centre capacity is projected to rise approximately 60% by 2028, with vulnerabilities concentrated around cooling, power continuity, battery systems and fire protection – areas where design choices materially affect business interruption risk. That is why in 2025, we launched FM Intellium, a new business unit focused on helping businesses seize the opportunities and mitigate the risks of technological advancement, from artificial intelligence to cloud computing to the power generation needs these innovations require.
Ultimately, in 2026, resilience gives businesses an important edge. With severe weather affecting major players and digital infrastructure expanding rapidly, risk culture must be embedded within operations, ensuring controls are well engineered and regularly tested. This provides a clear payoff, with higher uptime, safer operations and durable growth.
Claims preparedness and the resilience dividend
Benedict (Ben) McKenna,
vice president, division claims manager, UK & Asia Pacific
In 2026, preparedness will be the differentiator: Organisations that invest early in risk engineering and resilience will be better equipped to navigate continuously changing global markets facing rising complexity and resource constraints.
Clients have heightened expectations for rapid, efficient settlements as extreme weather grows more volatile. FM’s NatHaz research shows 78% of decision-makers believe previously held assumptions about their exposure are no longer relevant. Additionally, 74% underestimate wind and flood exposure, while FM’s Resilience Index demonstrates that underestimating exposures can lead to slower, more challenging recoveries overall.
FM’s partnership based claims model aims to close that gap before losses occur. This is done through claims experience workshops and early engagement, so our clients know how their policy coverage will respond in the event of a loss. In practice, our partnership approach enables FM to respond quickly to losses, provide early coverage confirmation – usually within 30 business days – issue advance payments to assist clients with recovery efforts and reach agreements on claims in a timely manner. Our approach is supported by inhouse adjusters, who manage thousands of large claims annually worldwide.
The coming year will reinforce the critical advantage of preparedness. Organisations that prioritise The NatHaz “Taking Action” guidance underscores the virtuous cycle: Resilience investments can lower insurance spend, freeing capital that can be reinvested in further mitigation. However, adoption still lags, with only 28% of risk decision-makers fully embedding risk engineering into new site selection and design, despite brokers ranking it the most impactful measure. The opportunity in 2026 is to operationalise these actions, from flood aware interior design to wind-resistant roof fastening, so recovery is faster and CFOs’ confidence is higher.
Practical risk reduction in the chemical industry
Nancy Campuzano,
account engineering group manager, chemical EMEA
In 2026, Europe’s chemical industry will remain under significant pressure. Persistently high energy costs, tighter regulation, increased supply from Asia and a prolonged market downturn are forcing companies to rethink where they produce, how they invest and how they protect operational continuity. With production volumes declining, assets ageing and skilled resources becoming scarcer, the key question many companies are asking is: How do we protect uptime and resilience without overspending?
My view is that resilience will increasingly come from turning complex standards and risk insights into practical, site-specific actions. Companies need to prioritise critical risks in safety management, ignitable liquids handling and storage, boiler and machinery hazards, fire protection systems and renewable energy sources to avoid introducing new risks to their processes. At the same time, regulatory change continues to add complexity and will influence sourcing decisions, compliance expectations, and capital planning.
At FM, my team and I focus on helping chemical clients navigate this environment by prioritising what matters most. We bring deep engineering expertise in chemical risks, loss history and understanding of industry solutions to target the highest exposures and strengthen claims preparedness, so recovery is faster and less disruptive when incidents occur. Resilience is engineered. In a market where margins are under pressure and growth is uneven, the companies that act early, focusing on practical risk reduction rather than reactive spending, will be the ones that remain competitive and keep their operations running.
Engineering priorities
Cathy Sinclair,
operations engineering manager, London
In 2026, engineering for natural hazards, particularly flood and wind, will be the most critical challenge. Local, well executed projects deliver outsized value when paired with rigorous emergency planning.
When it comes to climate change, more areas are becoming prone to flooding, and depth and duration of floods in known zones are increasing. For sites in floodplains, these have become a matter of “when,” not “if.” As such, engineering priorities for 2026 include:
- Predicting and monitoring flood exposure using hazard maps and modelling
- Installing engineered barriers to prevent and limit water ingress
- Maintaining thorough, practiced emergency plans that keep operations viable through weather events
FM’s NatHaz resources detail flood emergency response plans (FERP) and checklists, alongside windstorm guidance that translates site-specific vulnerabilities, such as roof systems, exterior assemblies and outdoor equipment into pragmatic fixes. These measures, which have been tested in events from Superstorm Sandy to severe European windstorms, remain under-adopted and are a high-impact focus for 2026.
At the same time, renewable energy infrastructure buildout must integrate fire and natural hazard risk at the design stage, alongside electrical and mechanical reliability concerns. Resilient siting, enclosure design, cable routing and suppression strategies are as crucial to uptime as generation capacity.
Batteries, authorities and largescale testing in unique environments
Adrian Oxley,
staff vice president, principal engineer semiconductor / digital
In 2026, authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) will raise expectations for battery systems in data centres and advanced facilities, with largescale fire tests becoming the norm to demonstrate real-world performance.
Historically, certification followed UL standards; increasingly, occupancy certificates depend on demonstrating system behaviour under full-scale fire conditions to protect responders in high-risk environments. Battery technologies are evolving, and lithium ion is not the worst-case bound. However, application decisions – such as placement, ventilation, suppression, isolation and maintenance – must lead the design, not follow it.
Authorities are asking for largescale fire tests to prove performance in real-life scenarios. Batteries aren’t going away, but how we apply them must change. Our role is to help the industry navigate these risks.
For operators, the implication is straightforward: Engage fire protection engineering early, specify system level tests and plan for integration with evacuation and firefighting strategies, especially in dense data halls with high electrical loads, liquid cooling and complex backup configurations.
Heightened client expectations
Nigel Todd,
vice president, client service manager
In 2026, we anticipate that client expectations will continue to evolve in response to a more dynamic and demanding business environment. Businesses increasingly need to operate without interruptions, which means resilience strategies will be front and centre. Clients are looking for continuous insights rather than annual touchpoints, supported by engineering expertise, research and dedicated service teams.
Digital tools that simplify collaboration, such as the FM Portal, are critical, enabling on-demand access to exposure data and reporting. At the same time, human connection remains essential: Personal meetings and site visits reinforce trust and partnership in an increasingly digital world. Responsiveness and proactive guidance, grounded in technical expertise, will matter more than ever.
Sustainability and resilience shape conversations, with resilience acting as a bridge to sustainability goals. Clients will need support navigating climate risk and meeting CSRD reporting requirements, making engineered solutions that reduce downtime a key differentiator.
Ultimately, the greatest opportunity lies in deepening personal engagement through stewardship meetings, on-site engineering visits and transparent communication, ensuring alignment on mutual objectives and strengthening relationships in a fast-changing landscape.
Take action
To sum up, these are the important actions to be taken in 2026 and beyond:
- Embed risk engineering at concept design for all new sites and major retrofits; it’s the single most impactful action, and still underused.
- Make flood and wind readiness routine: Update FERP and windstorm checklists; audit roofs, exterior walls, and equipment fastening; install engineered flood barriers.
- Design battery systems for firefighters, not just uptime: Specify largescale fire tests, separation, suppression and detection that match the chemistry and load profile.
- Operationalise claims preparedness: Run scenario workshops, clarify “extra expense” response, and preestablish lines of authority for rapid payment in a major loss.
- Use data to prioritise investments: Combine site-level engineering assessments, the Resilience Index and NatHaz insights to target the controls that cut the biggest risks first.
From data to decisions
Across sectors including data centres, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, commercial real estate and logistics, resilience requires macro to micro translation: from policy and market trends to site-level hazards to prioritised investments.
This is where FM’s open resources and tools can help you make informed decisions:
- FM NatHaz Toolkit & Report: Access up-to-date hazard insights, key findings on hazards and action frameworks to close the resilience gap.
- FM Resilience Index: Free, country-level benchmarking across 130 countries/territories to inform siting, supply chain diversification and scenario planning.
- Claims preparedness: How to guidance and case examples, such as workshops, policy response clarity, rapid onsite adjusting, to help clients accelerate recovery before an event occurs.
- Extreme weather insights and the downloadable NatHaz report pack for board level briefings and programme design.