A trillion here, a trillion there: The headline figure in the latest analysis of the costs of achieving net-zero emissions, from McKinsey & Co., is a staggering $9.2 trillion a year, every year, between now and 2050. That comes to a grand total of $275 trillion worth of investments in energy assets and land-use systems ranging from agriculture to forestry. These numbers are larger than some past estimates have assumed, pointing to the scope of the challenge. Relative to the size of the global economy, they might look larger still—equaling between 6% and almost 9% of global economic output. But the closer one looks at this particular set of trillions of dollars, the smaller the numbers become, turning the challenge of the clean energy transition into a global opportunity. For one, the […]