The figures for the coming decade are mind-concentrating.To stay on track for net zero, by 2030 annual production of electric vehicles needs to be ten times higher than it was last year and the number of roadside charging stations 31 times bigger.The installed base of renewable-power generation needs to rise three-fold.Global mining firms may have to raise the annual production of critical minerals by 500%.Perhaps 2% of America’s land will have to be blanketed in turbines and solar panels.All this will require vast investment: some $35trn over the next decade, equivalent to a third of the global fund-management industry’s assets today.The system best equipped to deliver this is the network of cross-border supply chains and capital markets that has revolutionised the world since the 1990s.Yet even this system is underdelivering, with energy investment running at about half the level required, and skewed towards a few rich countries and China.Despite soaring metals prices, for example, mining firms are wary of boosting supply.The main reason for the investment shortfall is that it takes too long to get projects approved and their expected risk and returns are still too opaque.
