McKinsey and Company recently released their report that outlines a path toward a prosperous, green economy by showing how current technology, if fully deployed, could dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to the report, many of the technologies identified would provide savings to consumers and businesses, as well as create thousands of new, green-collar jobs.
Pathways to a Low Carbon Economy lists more than 200 opportunities, spread across ten sectors and twenty-one geographical regions, that have the potential to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, a reduction of 70 percent from the business as usual scenario.
The report is a refined version of a previously-released Greenhouse Gas Emissions Abatement Cost Curve that was published on 2007. It compares the relative costs of using different technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Many of the technologies highlighted would generate savings that would offset the cost of implementation.
McKinsey concludes that the total cost of implementing all of the measures contained in the report would be less than one percent of global gross domestic product. The study has been extensively peer-reviewed by scientists, economists and expert bodies . It presents its findings in the form of an “abatement cost curve” which graphically illustrates the sectors in which the most cost-effective carbon reductions can be made.
You can download the executive summary and the full report on McKinsey’s web site.