BELGIUM PERSPECTIVE

Brussels, May 28, 2026. Belgium is navigating this late May under temperatures that shatter records, but it's less the heat itself that draws the attention of the Belgian press than the collective response it triggers. In a scathing editorial published by La Libre Belgique, François Mathieu poses the central question: how can a society that has been commenting on climate change for decades still find itself 'surprised by a phenomenon that is no longer surprising'?

The sports world serves as a brutal revealer. A marathon run under 35 degrees, a tennis player stumbling at Roland-Garros, trailers evacuated in an emergency: all signs that the human body does not negotiate with the climate reality. La Libre highlights that climate change is no longer an environmental issue among others – it has become a daily, tangible material constraint, visible in stadiums, on courts, and in streets.

Yet, the response remains almost exclusively reactive. Cities suffocate, homes retain heat instead of protecting themselves, work schedules change little, sports and cultural events persist at the same dates and times. "We improvise water distributions where we should rethink the very organization of public space," Mathieu writes. Vigilance calls accumulate as if each episode remains a temporary anomaly, rather than a foretaste of a new normality.

In Flanders, VRT NWS reports an unprecedented phenomenon: the 'cooling power crisis,' a simultaneous peak in electricity consumption triggered by the massive activation of air conditioners between 8 pm and 10 pm, precisely when solar panel efficiency drops and wind weakens. Dirk Saelens, engineer and professor at KU Leuven, recommends a different approach: turning on air conditioners as early as 2 pm for homes equipped with solar panels, transforming the home into a 'thermal battery' that stores coolness and avoids the nighttime peak. However, this individualized solution illustrates precisely the problem pointed out by La Libre: adaptation is shifted onto the citizen rather than becoming a public policy.

The Belgian paradox is striking: never has the media coverage of climate disruption been so intense, and yet adaptation policies remain underfunded, relegated to local authorities or households. The multilingual Belgian press – with its distinct editorial lines between La Libre and VRT NWS – converges, however, on the same conclusion: Belgian society remains structurally organized according to the climate of the 1980s, while the summers of 2026 announce a different era.