How you can chart your course to Net Zero

Introducing a new transformational tool to help businesses decarbonise and create clear pathways to net zero. Explore your actionable analysis now.

To meet the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming, the world of business is coming under increasing pressure to decarbonise and set firm net-zero commitments. That pressure comes from a range of powerful stakeholders, including governments and financial markets. Investors, banks, insurers and pension providers are evaluating the potential risks to their own business from the current systems’ continued reliance on fossil fuels.

Many companies, however, are unsure about the correct net-zero transition pathways for their operating sectors. Some of their key questions include:

Can we reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with our sectoral decarbonisation requirements?
What is the most cost-efficient abatement plan?
What abatement measures do I need to implement, and when?

A new transformational tool to help the transition to net zero

To address this uncertainty, PwC has developed a Pathways to Paris transformation tool for ten industry sectors within the German economy. The tool is web-based and free of charge.

The tool helps you understand your company’s decarbonisation options and implement associated measures in a cost-efficient manner. Financial sector specialists as well as industry experts can also use the tool to analyse decarbonisation transformation pathways and requirements together with their financial implications.

The sectors covered are:

Road freight
Residential real estate
Commercial real estate
Electricity generation
Steel production
Cement production
Livestock farming (dairy sector)
High-value chemicals
Ammonia production
Automotive industry

How the tool was created

The Pathways to Paris transformation tool is the result of collaboration between climate and industry experts from PwC Germany and the World Wide Fund for Nature. It draws on the ‘Towards a Climate-Neutral Germany by 2045’ (PDF)Opens in a new window scenario, which was published in 2021 by a leading research institution in Germany as a reference for sector-specific net-zero transformation pathways that align with the targets of the Paris Agreement.

The requirements and assumptions that went into the tool were validated in a series of 30 workshops with more than 80 participants from business, the financial services sector and academia.

‘The tool helps you understand your company’s decarbonisation options and implement associated measures in a cost-efficient manner.’

How the tool helps your company transition to net zero

The tool takes a three-step approach to offer actionable analysis.

Companies follow a dedicated transition pathway that is tailored to their economic sector. This enables a better understanding of their greenhouse gas footprint and the minimum requirements for reducing emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
The tool also allows for the combination of various sector-specific decarbonisation measures. This means that companies can test the effects and costs of various reduction measures and move towards the objective of climate neutrality in a controlled, step-by-step manner. The tool provides an overview of those outcomes in graphic form.
It also allows for the design of new combinations of measures based on their effects and cost implications. This means that companies obtain the most cost-efficient road map for their Paris-aligned transformation process.

The right tool for net-zero transition plans

Ultimately, companies need to confidently identify a reduction pathway that is compatible with the Paris Agreement and then develop cost-efficient measures for pursuing it. At the same time, international investors need reliable methods for assessing companies based on their transformation performance.

We believe the Pathways to Paris tool will prove a great help in achieving these aims.