The whole journey towards net zero and sustainability is not only good and important for our planet, it’s also an amazing opportunity for our companies to create the greatest amount of value since the end of World War II.
We estimate reaching net zero will require roughly $275 trillion through 2050. Over the past decade, we have only seen inflow of roughly half a trillion dollars, so we need to boost investments by ten or 20 times in the coming decade or two to deliver on our commitments to the planet.
Why is this important for the Nordics? We think it’s because we have three things going for us. First, we are sustainability natives. Our countries are home to 12 of the 100 most sustainable companies in the world, which is a disproportionately large number given our population. Second, our companies include technology leaders in fields such as AI, gen AI, and digitization, which are often enablers for net zero ecosystems. Finally, we can rely on private and public funding willing to take the risk and lean forward into the net-zero journey.
So if we play our cards right, Nordics have the opportunity to become the Silicon Valley of sustainability. This will, of course, create significant value we estimate may total €130 billion for the entire region, and create one million net new jobs. This is obviously a self-propelling growth factor, which, combined with the efficiency and productivity gains of the past two decades, will hopefully see us become a growth region for the coming two decades.