Investment for an environmentally and climate-friendly future

The dramatic changes in our climate are a clear signal: We need to act quickly while we still have the option of switching to a clean energy supply, sustainable mobility and climate-friendly industries. Solutions have already been developed and tested in many sectors – now the time has come to implement them on an industrial scale. The required sums may appear substantial, however they represent huge opportunities for the economy and society. According to economists, climate protection efforts will provide investment opportunities amounting to an additional 23,000 billion euros by 2030. This could create 65 million jobs. With future breakthroughs in electric mobility and storage technologies, the significant reductions in the cost of renewable energies and their international deployment are just some of the sectors offering enormous investment potential.

In the European Union around 180 billion euros are needed each year in order to reach the current climate goals by 2030. If the EU follows the stricter path towards achieving the 1.5° goal, this will require annual investments of 230 billion euros. The long-term goal of climate neutrality is favoured at EU level. This means that no additional greenhouse gases will be emitted into the atmosphere, creating a balance between greenhouse gas emissions and sinks such as forests which absorb C02. The precondition is the phasing-out of coal, oil and gas. Several scenarios indicate how an adequate reduction of greenhouse gases can be achieved (see graphic below for one example).