The global effort to reach net zero carbon by 2050, not just limited to the energy sector, is expected to cost around $9.2tr (£6.7tr) annually, equivalent to one-quarter of total tax revenue or half of global corporate profits, the report entitled 'The Net Zero Transition' has found.
This figure represents an annual increase of as much as $3.5tr from today’s levels as well as an additional $1tr of current annual spend that would need to be reallocated from high-emissions to low-emissions assets.
Governments are facing increasing pressure to announce more stringent policies to tackle climate change in order to provide a pathway for the world to stick below 2°C global warming.
Last year, researchers found that even though some of the world’s most polluting countries have made stronger climate change pledges in recent years, the level of expected warming is 2.4˚C by the end of the century, nearly a degree higher than the 1.5˚C of warming considered...