Getting (A Lot) More Done Per CO2 Molecule

August 19, 2008 in carbon mitigation, consumption, energy efficiency by nils | Add your comment

According to a McKinsey Global Institute report released at the end of July, the world economy will have to improve its "carbon productivity" - the amount of gross domestic product (GDP) created per unit of CO2 - by a factor of ten by 2050 to stop global climate change in its tracks while continuing to enable a healthy level of growth. The report predicts that the cost of this transformation will amount to 0.6% - 1.3% of global GDP by 2030. They note that this compares favorably to the cost of insurance born by economies, which amounts to more than 3% of GDP.

Helpfully, the report also suggests the most appealing opportunities for achieving this ten-fold improvement in productivity (referring to MGI's February paper on the global cost curve):

It will be essential to identify and capture the lowest-cost abatement opportunities in the economy. Analysis of McKinsey's global cost curve, a map of the world's abatement opportunities ranked from lowest-cost to highest-cost options, identifies five areas for action to drive the necessary microeconomic changes: capturing available opportunities to increase energy efficiency in a cost-effective way; decarbonizing energy sources; accelerating the development and deployment of new low-carbon technologies; changing the behaviors of businesses and consumers; and preserving and expanding the world's carbon sinks, most notably its forests.

Productivity ("regular productivity") increased by a factor of ten over the course of the Industrial Revolution - a period of 120 years. McKinsey's call to action calls for a similar increase, but over a period one-third as long. But they warn that, if this goal is not achieved, we will all be facing lives of significant privation.