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McKinsey Platform for Climate Technologies

Accelerating deployment of net-zero technologies

To achieve net zero, the world needs technological innovation, deployment, and scale-up at unprecedented speed.

To implement these technologies at scale, decision makers need clarity on how they work: the science, capital investment requirements, scaling economics, prices, regulations, environmental impact, and much more. They need to understand where those factors stand today and how they’re likely to change over time. That’s a challenge in this evolving category, where the deployment scale is relatively small and technology advances with astonishing speed.

We launched the McKinsey Platform for Climate Technologies (MPCT) to help clients plan, execute, and scale the implementation of these critical technologies. MPCT works with the world’s leading experts to anticipate the impact of new technologies and challenge conventional approaches to established ones. We focus on the most critical technologies: those with the potential to transform our sources of energy for every industry, region, and community.

Climate Technology

"There's no doubt in my mind about the financial success that companies engaging in building and deploying new climate technologies are going to achieve,” explains McKinsey senior partner Mark Patel.

Featured technology areas

  • Hydrogen
  • Batteries and energy storage
  • Sustainable fuels
  • CCUS & Carbon removals
  • Natural capital and nature
  • Green built environments
  • Renewables
  • Nuclear fission and fusion
  • Circular technologies
  • Alternative proteins and sustainable agriculture

Featured partnerships

Frontier
Frontier is a $925 million advance market commitment (AMC) to purchase permanent carbon removal before 2030, by McKinsey Sustainability in partnership with fellow founders Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify and Meta. Frontier aims to accelerate the development of permanent carbon removal technologies and expand the global supply of carbon removal.

Net Zero Built Environment Council

The Net Zero Built Environment Council (NZBEC) is a McKinsey-convened, executive-led council with 50+ members across the built environment ecosystem. Announced at COP27, NZBEC was launched with an objective to identify, design, and take action on the most cost-efficient pathways to accelerate the built environment transition toward net zero.

Hydrogen Council

To help guide regulators, decision makers, and investors, we partnered with the Hydrogen Council to produce an ongoing series of reports on hydrogen investment, deployment, and cost competitiveness. These reports offer comprehensive perspectives on market deployment around the world as well as investment momentum and implications on the cost competitiveness of hydrogen solutions.

Long Duration Energy Storage Council

As a knowledge partner of the LDES Council, we are creating a series of new insights and reports to help accelerate the path to net-zero energy systems, from decarbonizing the grid with 24/7 clean power purchase agreements to long-duration energy storage for a renewable grid and net-zero heat.

Coalition for Negative Emissions

We partnered with the Coalition for Negative Emissions to research, write, and disseminate the case for negative emissions, an exhaustive analysis of negative emissions solutions and their centrality to achieving 1.5°-degree pathways.

Featured Experts

Dr. Benjamin Thaidigsmann

Expert
Benjamin holds a PhD in physics from Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, focused on novel silicon back-contact solar cell structures. His previous experience focused on novel printing technologies for sodium-ion battery manufacturing, as well as at-scale production technology for automotive fuel-cell stacks. This background enables Ben to work shoulder-to-shoulder with clients with a technology background (such as engineers), and to bridge the gap between strategy and technical details.

Amy Wagner

Senior Expert and Associate Partner
Amy holds two masters in energy economics from Stanford University. Her previous experience includes work for engineering and regulatory-economics consulting firms; renewable, storage, and fuel-cell groups; and energy policy for local governments. Her deep expertise in regulatory strategy, energy markets, and decarbonization modelling allows her to understand technology interdependencies and opportunities for new innovative business models.

Masaru Tsuchiya

Associate Partner
Masaru holds a master’s and a PhD in materials science from Harvard University. He cofounded and led a venture-capital-backed fuel cell start-up, led multimillion dollar research on fuel cells, and authored multiple peer-reviewed publications. He works closely with clients to realize sustainability transformation and green growth, and brings deep expertise on topics such as semiconductors, renewables, battery, hydrogen, chemicals, and materials.

Evan Horetsky

Partner
Evan co-leads the McKinsey cross-functional battery team to help battery, sustainable tech, and BEV companies on their industrialization and scale-up journey at incredible scale, speed, and cost. Evan joined McKinsey as a senior executive with 15 years’ experience in EV batteries, autonomous vehicles, and sustainability, focused on reversing climate change. He previously led engineering, procurement, and construction for an EV company, planning battery factories across the world. He has also led projects in the solar and broader renewable space.

Our People

Bernd Heid
Senior Partner, Cologne
Leads the McKinsey Platform for Climate Technologies and work in hydrogen globally; serves clients in the mobility and energy...
Mark Patel
Senior Partner, Bay Area - San Francisco
Advises clients across sectors on sustainability with a focus on climate technologies; leads client work across industrial, high-tech,...
Martin Linder
Senior Partner, Munich
Leads our manufacturing and capital productivity work for the automotive sector and advises automotive OEMs and suppliers on operations...

New at McKinsey blog

McKinsey partners with Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, and Meta on $925 million carbon removal commitment
– We are pleased to announce today that McKinsey Sustainability will be partnering with Alphabet, Shopify, Meta and Stripe in an eight-year $925 million commitment to accelerate the development of permanent carbon removal technologies by guaranteeing future demand.

McKinsey launches new climate technology effort to accelerate decarbonization
– The McKinsey Platform for Climate Technologies will help clients plan, deploy, and scale new decarbonization solutions around the world.

FEATURED INSIGHTS

Article

The clean hydrogen opportunity for hydrocarbon-rich countries

– Hydrogen could play an important role in helping hard-to-abate sectors meet climate targets. Countries with hydrocarbon resources and industry expertise can help build and scale the needed technology.
Article

What will it take for nuclear power to meet the climate challenge?
– Nuclear power can be an important part of the energy transition. Scaling the industry to meet increasing electricity demand will... require leaders to mobilize quickly and efficiently.
Article

CO2 removal solutions: A buyer’s perspective
– As climate change impact becomes increasingly apparent, the adoption of decarbonization commitments is accelerating. Companies... are acting rapidly and decisively to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and neutralize residual emissions.
Article

Battery 2030: Resilient, sustainable, and circular
– Battery demand is growing—and so is the need for better solutions along the value chain.
Report

Nature in the balance: What companies can do to restore natural capital
– Specific corporate actions, many with a positive return on investment, could help reverse the trend of the depletion of natural... capital.
Report

Net-zero heat: Long-duration energy storage to accelerate energy system decarbonization
– Thermal energy storage has the potential to greatly contribute to decarbonizing global heat and power, while helping to ensure... the energy system operates affordably, reliably, and efficiently.
Article

Accelerating green growth in the built environment
– The industries that make up the built environment are highly fragmented and slow to change. Creating green growth requires shifts... in how players design, build, operate, and decommission assets.
Article

Five charts on hydrogen’s role in a net-zero future
– Hydrogen has great potential as a carbon-free energy carrier. Here’s a look at the momentum behind this widely applicable technology.
Article

Will fusion energy help decarbonize the power system?
– Nuclear fusion has long been considered a near-impossible clean-energy solution. But technological advances—and the need... for a flexible zero-carbon power grid—have made fusion worth considering.
Article

Climate tech competitiveness: Can the United States raise its game?
– The United States has an opportunity to turn its innovation advantage in climate technologies into the basis for a thriving manufacturing... and export sector.
Article

Decarbonizing the grid with 24/7 clean power purchase agreements
– In the global struggle to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, renewable power is taking an ever-increasing share of generation capacity.... Yet the rise of wind and solar power is creating new challenges in managing the system.
Article

Delivering the climate technologies needed for net zero
– Developing and deploying climate technologies is critical for the world’s net-zero agenda. Growth could await businesses willing... to innovate quickly and to collaborate across value chains.
Report

Net-zero power: Long-duration energy storage for a renewable grid
– As the world transitions to decarbonized energy systems, emerging long-duration energy storage technologies will be critical for... supporting the widescale deployment of renewable energy sources.
See all insights

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