The Global Energy Perspective is produced by Energy Solutions, part of McKinsey’s Global Energy & Materials Practice, in close collaboration with McKinsey’s Sustainability and Advanced Industries practices. McKinsey is committed to our position that the world requires a major course correction to reach climate goals aligned with the Paris Agreement, and our research is focused on helping global stakeholders meet those targets.
The Global Energy Perspective 2024 offers a detailed demand outlook for 68 sectors and 78 fuels across a 1.5° pathway, as set out in the Paris Agreement, as well as three bottom-up energy transition scenarios. The scenarios have been redesigned this year to better reflect changing global conditions, including geopolitical challenges, increasingly complex supply chains, and higher inflation. Together, they explore potential outcomes, ranging from a sustainable transformation—a plausible scenario where sustainability becomes a global priority and nations coordinate toward decarbonization, despite the challenges—through a continuation of the current energy transition momentum, to a slower evolution characterized by a fragmented response to decarbonization. Data for these scenarios come from a variety of sources, including the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Energy Institute, Eurostat, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Oxford Economics, the United Nations, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the US Energy Information Administration, among others.
This broad range of scenarios is intended to show the implications of different pathways and to provide a fact base to inform decision makers. However, these scenarios are not exhaustive in the realm of all possible outcomes, nor will any individual scenario unfold exactly as we describe it. In certain cases in this report, we may highlight a particular scenario that best illustrates a trend, but this does not mean that we believe this scenario is more or less likely to reflect the actual outcome. The insights in this report are based on currently available data, but multiple factors could influence real-world outcomes as the energy transition continues to advance.
About Energy Solutions: Energy Solutions is McKinsey’s global market intelligence and analytics group focused on the energy sector. The group enables organizations to make well-informed strategic, tactical, and operational decisions by using an integrated suite of market models, proprietary industry data, leading industry benchmarks, advanced analytical tools, and a global network of industry experts. It works with leading companies across the entire energy value chain to help them manage risk, optimize their organizations, and improve performance.
About the Global Energy & Materials Practice: McKinsey’s Global Energy & Materials Practice deploys its deep insights, functional capabilities, and proprietary benchmark and data solutions across the converging energy, materials, and natural resources supply chains to help create substantial and long-lasting value for stakeholders. Guided by advanced analytics and the power of a global team, it brings distinctive industry perspectives across sectors that support today’s critical infrastructure ecosystems. The practice is proud to have partnered with hundreds of major industry players as the leading and most integrated advisor on strategic and functional transformations, enabling clients to accelerate decarbonization and realize the energy, materials, and food transitions.
About McKinsey & Company: McKinsey is a global management consulting firm committed to helping organizations accelerate sustainable and inclusive growth. The firm works with clients across the private, public, and social sectors to solve complex problems and create positive change for all their stakeholders. It combines bold strategies and transformative technologies to help organizations innovate more sustainably, achieve lasting gains in performance, and build workforces that will thrive for this generation and those to come.