Countries and companies worldwide have made commitments to get to net zero. But there’s another challenge of equal scale that demands the same urgency: addressing poverty in a decisive way. These goals are linked and have to be tackled in tandem.
This isn’t just our own opinion. At the recently concluded Group of 20 summit, leaders of some of the world’s largest economies issued a declaration affirming that “no country should have to choose between fighting poverty and fighting for our planet.” Soon after, the World Bank unveiled an expanded mission: “To end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet.”
The McKinsey Global Institute’s latest research puts dollar figures against these existential and converging objectives. And there’s no denying that those figures are daunting. People who cannot meet all of their basic needs sufficiently today would need an additional $37 trillion in spending power, cumulative over the decade. Simultaneously, the world needs to invest $41 trillion more in low-emissions technologies by 2030, over and above current spending levels.