McKinsey & Company recently developed this paper to support the GLOBE International Legislator-CEO Dialogue. The work draws on research from McKinsey’s Climate Change Initiative, the McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey’s work with Vattenfall on the global carbon cost curve, and research by various outside experts.

The purpose of this paper is to help frame the discussion for the GLOBE International Legislator and CEO Dialogue, offer some common language for the participants, and provide a background fact-base. The paper does not attempt to propose specific answers to the problems raised by climate change, but rather suggests a way to think about the issues, and raises a series of questions that we hope will be helpful to the participants in the discussion.

The complexity of the climate issue means that the paper inevitably does not discuss all issues—for example it does not discuss adaptation. Rather the approach use the interview process to guide us and we focused on issues that were a.) of most concern to the participants, and b.) most relevant to their positions as political and business leaders.

McKinsey takes sole responsibility for the paper’s content unless otherwise cited, and its contents do not necessarily reflect the views of either GLOBE International or BP. The discussion of the cost curve results represents McKinsey’s interpretation and does not necessarily reflect the views of Vattenfall.

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