The Shortlist: Decarbonize AND cut costs? Yes you can.

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FOUR OF OUR BEST NEW IDEAS FOR THE C-SUITE

Curated by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities

COP28 kicks off in two weeks. Thousands of CEOs and other leaders will pack their bags and head to Dubai to debate the next steps on the road to net zero. In this special sustainability edition of the CEO Shortlist, we offer our latest thoughts on the world’s biggest problem. We hope you enjoy the read.

—Liz and Homayoun

An image linking to the web page “A sector progress tracker for the net-zero transition” on McKinsey.com.

What’s new

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Emissions reduction needs to happen across categories, sectors, and geographies—all at once. As part of COP28’s global stocktake of progress since the Paris Agreement, we’ve put together an interactive sector tracker to help identify which sectors are making progress on reducing global warming, and where we need to accelerate our efforts.

Learn how sectors are measuring up in A sector tracker for the net-zero transition, a new interactive by Hauke Engel, Mekala Krishnan, Daniel Pacthod, Hamid Samandari, Humayun Tai, Simran Khural, and Mackenzie Murphy.

An image linking to the web page “Decarbonize and create value: How incumbents can tackle the steep challenge” on McKinsey.com.

What’s now

Best of both worlds. For years, executives have balked at the high costs of decarbonizing operations. That’s changing. Leading companies in several sectors are showing the rest how it’s done: reducing emissions and cutting costs simultaneously.

Learn how to do both with Decarbonize and create value: How incumbents can tackle the steep challenge, by Peter Crispeels, Dieuwert Inia, Henry Legge, Tomas Nauclér , and Philipp Radtke.

An image linking to the web page “Global Energy Perspective 2023” on McKinsey.com.

What’s next

A sneak peek at peak oil. Fossil fuel consumption has only gone one way for hundreds of years. The moment it starts to decline will be a critical step on the road to net zero. Our latest research suggests it might be sooner than you think.

Interest piqued? Read Global Energy Perspective 2023.

An image linking to the web page “Ten key requirements for a systemic approach to climate adaptation” on McKinsey.com.

What’s needed

*Sweeping gesture* Adaptation has made all this possible. Homo sapiens adapted to changing climate conditions to spread all over the globe and invent things we need like fireplaces and agriculture (as well as luxuries like smartphones and cheese puffs). Today, finding ourselves in an existential climate predicament, we can—must—once again lean on adaptation.

What’s different this time? We have to be much, much more organized about it. Here’s a starting point: Ten key requirements for a systemic approach to climate adaptation, a new article by Alexis Trittipo, Hamid Samandari, Homayoun Hatami, Mekala Krishnan, Philipp Koch, and Carter Powis.

We hope you find our sustainability content inspiring and helpful. See you in two weeks with four more McKinsey ideas for the CEO and others in the C-suite.

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