Catastrophic climate events, as defined by the US National Research Council, occur when the climate system abruptly crosses thresholds, transitioning to new states faster than their causes. On the other hand, climate change, as described by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), involves shifts in climate properties mean and variability over extended periods. We contend that photovoltaic (PV) system reliability is threatened by climate change in two ways. Firstly, changes in climate properties mean expose PV systems to prolonged environmental stresses, leading to increased defects and degradation over time. Secondly, variations in climate properties' variability subject PV systems to short-term encounters with extreme conditions, potentially causing direct damage or heightened susceptibility to failure. While the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) addresses some extreme stress levels indirectly (and on top of standard qualification protocols), such as through guidelines for operation at high temperatures, the evolving variability of climate properties may increase the occurrence of catastrophic events like hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes, imposing new challenges on PV systems. By understanding and mitigating these risks, we can enhance the resilience of PV modules in the face of climate change-induced challenges. The hot-dry climate of the Middle East may serve as a testbed for some of these climate change challenges: recognizing the pressing need to tackle these, we discuss new test methods inspired by both existing standards from other industries and non-standard protocols.