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What physical realities could slow the world’s progress toward net zero?

Only McKinsey Perspectives

DELIVERING ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS ON THE DAY’S NEWS

Brought to you by Alex Panas, global leader of industries, & Axel Karlsson, global leader of functional practices and growth platforms

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Net zero’s physical challenges

In the news

•

Recyclable metals. While the mining industry is a major source of the emissions that contribute to global warming, the sector is also essential to achieving net zero, Bloomberg reports. Annual demand for metals—such as aluminum, copper, and graphite—that are critical for the energy infrastructure of the future could increase by five times between 2023 and 2050. Yet the increase in demand doesn’t mean an increase in overall extraction. The metals of the energy transition are recyclable, which will reduce the need to continually exploit new resources, and technological advances have already been made to improve their reusability. [Bloomberg]

•

Decarbonizing industrial companies. A European country recently pledged to invest about €3.3 billion in initiatives to help decarbonize its local industries, the Associated Press highlights. This plan includes funding for carbon capture and storage projects that would enable organizations to store carbon dioxide below ground. As the largest economy in Europe, with numerous energy-intensive sectors, the move represents a meaningful step toward meeting the country’s goal of reaching net zero by 2045. [AP News]

“We’re way short of where we need to be. If 2050 is the marker [for reaching net-zero targets], what we find is that we are 10% of the way there, with 90% to go.”

On McKinsey.com

•

A vast physical system. To transform the global energy system successfully, focusing on the transition’s physical challenges will be critical, senior partner Humayun Tai and partner Mekala Krishnan explain on a recent episode of The McKinsey Podcast. “We’re talking about 60,000 power plants, a billion vehicles, and many billion tons of materials like steel and cement produced around the world,” Krishnan says. “Today’s energy system is . . . an eye-wateringly vast, complex, and interlinked physical entity.”

•

Tough challenges. To determine what it will take to reach net-zero targets by 2050, Tai, Krishnan, and their coauthors of the McKinsey Global Institute report The hard stuff identified 25 physical challenges that the world needs to overcome to accelerate progress. Twelve of these, such as managing renewables variability and decarbonizing industries, are particularly tough—in part because these challenges depend on solving other difficult ones, calling for a systemic approach. Understand the energy transition’s physical realities.

Overcome net zero’s physical tests

—Edited by Belinda Yu, editor, Atlanta

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by "Only McKinsey Perspectives" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 01:06 - 22 Oct 2024

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What physical realities could slow the world’s progress toward net zero?

Net zero’s physical challenges

In the news

“We’re way short of where we need to be. If 2050 is the marker [for reaching net-zero targets], what we find is that we are 10% of the way there, with 90% to go.”

On McKinsey.com

Archives

in

info@learn.odoo.com

Your essential guide to cloud ERP

API Performance Testing Tool

What physical realities could slow the world’s progress toward net zero?

﻿Net zero’s physical challenges

In the news

“We’re way short of where we need to be. If 2050 is the marker [for reaching net-zero targets], what we find is that we are 10% of the way there, with 90% to go.”﻿

On McKinsey.com

Net zero’s physical challenges

“We’re way short of where we need to be. If 2050 is the marker [for reaching net-zero targets], what we find is that we are 10% of the way there, with 90% to go.”