New data shows where housing is most costly in Europe – and where people are willing to spend more on it.
Those in Finland spend the most on housing, followed closely by the British, according to the Resolution Foundation.
The British think tank found that people in Finland spend 24% of their total expenditure on housing – far higher than the EU average of 15%.
The data combined the cost of actual rent paid with an estimate of the cost of housing owners would pay if they rented their home on the open market – known as “imputed rent”.
Housing in Poland, by contrast, has the lowest share of spending of any OECD country, taking up 6% of expenditure.
Where is the price of housing highest?
The price of housing is highest in the UK, relative to the country’s overall price levels, followed by New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. Poland and Greece both rank well below the OECD average – with the low cost of housing partially explaining their high housing consumption.
In Europe, house prices have climbed the most in Turkey – with figures showing that Turkish house prices are 12 times higher than they were nine years ago in nominal terms. This puts a flat in Istanbul in close competition with the famously expensive Paris and London.
Among OECD member states, northern European countries such as Sweden and Finland have seen the smallest change, with more than 4% increases in nominal housing prices since 2015.
Turkey is followed closely by Hungary, where prices are 166% more than they were in 2015.
Fight against rising house prices
Soaring house prices and rents – largely down to increasing demand from foreign buyers and continued economic growth – is making it tougher for Greeks to get on or up the property ladder.
A recent poll by Euronews found the fight against rising prices was voters’ biggest issue in the upcoming EU elections, with 68% of respondents calling it a priority.
The Foundation also charted the relationship between the overall prosperity of a nation, compared to the amount of housing services it consumes.
Poland’s housing consumption was highest, followed by Greece and the Czech Republic.
Households in the UK, relative to the country’s overall prosperity, consume far less housing than households than all other OECD economies except Colombia – by far the poorest member of the group.
A panoramic view of Patrica.
Giamby/Wirestock Creators – stock.adobe.com
A national law has created a huge hurdle for offloading some historic, and very cheap, houses.
In central Italy’s medieval town of Patrica, a strategy to breathe new life into empty properties has hit a possibly insurmountable snafu.
Patrica recently adopted a plan that has seen success in other depopulated Italian areas: Selling off its deserted abodes for a single euro each — about $1.08 in today’s American currency — to those interested for a fixer-upper opportunity.
It may seem unique and unusual, but these opportunities have popped up in other parts of Italy in the past several years, all in an effort to repopulate the regions where these residences stand.
While the campaign has worked in towns such as Sicily’s Mussomeli and the Campania region’s Zungoli, Patrica has barely moved any properties. That’s because doing so requires permission from the current owners, many of whom left their homes in the early 1900s, according to CNN.
“We first need the availability of owners, or their heirs, in disposing of their old houses,” Lucio Fiordaliso, the mayor of the remote, approximately 3,000-person village, told the outlet of the Italian law that has significantly impeded the homes’ resale. “Only then can we place these properties up for sale with their consent, which makes the process very complicated. Almost impossible.”
(Towns that have been depopulated as a result of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, are not required to get owner permission to put abandoned buildings up for sale.)
Of Patrica’s nearly 40 abandoned residences currently selling for 1 euro, only two have traded hands, both fully owned by locals.
“The disposal of potential 1 euro homes faced a deadlock as most relatives sharing the same property were at odds with one another for personal reasons or couldn’t agree on the sale, some hardly spoke or knew each other, others lived in distant cities and even abroad,” Fiordaliso said, comparing the process for finding heirs and getting them to consent to their near-worthless home’s sale to “looking for a needle in a haystack.”
It’s a newly emerging challenge for these property sales, which have made plenty of news headlines over the last several years. However, despite the lure of a dirt-cheap purchase price, tens of thousands of dollars tend to be required for renovation costs, leaving certain new owners of such homes in Italy over their heads in work.
Meanwhile, Patrica’s turnkey listings have been moving, CNN reported. But still, Fiordaliso isn’t throwing in the towel on the old ones — even if it means continuing to wade into family feuds to acquire owner permission.
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LONDON, March 05, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Resonance is a leading adviser in tourism, real estate and economic development, and its annual Europe’s Best Cities rankings quantify and benchmark the relative quality of place, reputation and competitive identity for the continent’s urban centres.
The Best Cities data is lauded as the world’s most thorough annual city rankings, based on original methodology that analyses key statistics, user-generated reviews, social media and online activity.
The second annual Europe’s Best Cities ranking is an important, timely analysis of the urban centres that are leading the region (and planet) in post-pandemic economic recovery and a resilient future in the face of geo-political and environmental polycrisis.
Download the 2024 Europe’s Best Cities Report and all 100 city profiles at WorldsBestCities.com.
Learn more about how Resonance Consultancy can help your city and community at ResonanceCo.com.
”The 2024 Europe’s Best Cities rankings benchmark the overall performance of more than 180 principal cities in metropolitan areas with populations of more than 500,000, based on a wide variety of measures, in order to identify the Top 100 places to live, visit and invest in Europe,” says Resonance President & CEO Chris Fair.
The overall Best Cities rankings are determined by analysing the performance of each city for a wide range of factors that have historically shown positive correlations with attracting employment, investment and/or visitors to cities. Resonance groups these 27 metrics into a ranking of each city’s Livability, Lovability and Prosperity.
Based on each city’s performance across our methodology, these are Europe’s Top 10 Best Cities for 2024:
1. London, United Kingdom
2. Paris, France
3. Berlin, Germany
4. Rome, Italy
5. Madrid, Spain
6. Prague, Czechia
7. Barcelona, Spain
8. Amsterdam, Netherlands
9. Istanbul, Türkiye
10. Milan, Italy
The full ranking and extensive profiles of all 100 Europe’s Best Cities are available at WorldsBestCities.com.
About Resonance Consultancy
Resonance creates transformative strategies, brands and campaigns that empower destinations, cities and communities to realise their full potential. As leading advisors in real estate, tourism and economic development, Resonance combines expertise in research, strategy, branding and communications to make destinations, cities and developments more valuable and more vibrant. ResonanceCo.com
About World’s Best Cities
Best Cities is the home of Resonance’s exclusive ranking of the world’s top urban regions. The data is used by leading news outlets, trusted by city leaders, and is widely considered to be the world’s most comprehensive annual city ranking. Bloomberg calls it, ”The most comprehensive study of its kind; it identifies cities that are most desirable for locals, visitors, and businesspeople alike, rather than simply looking at livability or tourism appeal.” WorldsBestCities.com | #BestCities
The global place branding adviser today announced Europe’s 100 top-performing cities in their annual 2024 Europe’s Best Cities Report. London tops the ranking, while multiple Italian and Spanish cities make the Top 10.
2024 Europe’s Best Cities Report
2024 Europe’s Best Cities Report
LONDON, March 05, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Resonance is a leading adviser in tourism, real estate and economic development, and its annual Europe’s Best Cities rankings quantify and benchmark the relative quality of place, reputation and competitive identity for the continent’s urban centres.
The Best Cities data is lauded as the world’s most thorough annual city rankings, based on original methodology that analyses key statistics, user-generated reviews, social media and online activity.
The second annual Europe’s Best Cities ranking is an important, timely analysis of the urban centres that are leading the region (and planet) in post-pandemic economic recovery and a resilient future in the face of geo-political and environmental polycrisis.
Download the 2024 Europe’s Best Cities Report and all 100 city profiles at WorldsBestCities.com.
Learn more about how Resonance Consultancy can help your city and community at ResonanceCo.com.
”The 2024 Europe’s Best Cities rankings benchmark the overall performance of more than 180 principal cities in metropolitan areas with populations of more than 500,000, based on a wide variety of measures, in order to identify the Top 100 places to live, visit and invest in Europe,” says Resonance President & CEO Chris Fair.
The overall Best Cities rankings are determined by analysing the performance of each city for a wide range of factors that have historically shown positive correlations with attracting employment, investment and/or visitors to cities. Resonance groups these 27 metrics into a ranking of each city’s Livability, Lovability and Prosperity.
Based on each city’s performance across our methodology, these are Europe’s Top 10 Best Cities for 2024:
1. London, United Kingdom
2. Paris, France
3. Berlin, Germany
4. Rome, Italy
5. Madrid, Spain
6. Prague, Czechia
7. Barcelona, Spain
8. Amsterdam, Netherlands
9. Istanbul, Türkiye
10. Milan, Italy
The full ranking and extensive profiles of all 100 Europe’s Best Cities are available at WorldsBestCities.com.
About Resonance Consultancy
Resonance creates transformative strategies, brands and campaigns that empower destinations, cities and communities to realise their full potential. As leading advisors in real estate, tourism and economic development, Resonance combines expertise in research, strategy, branding and communications to make destinations, cities and developments more valuable and more vibrant. ResonanceCo.com
About World’s Best Cities
Best Cities is the home of Resonance’s exclusive ranking of the world’s top urban regions. The data is used by leading news outlets, trusted by city leaders, and is widely considered to be the world’s most comprehensive annual city ranking. Bloomberg calls it, ”The most comprehensive study of its kind; it identifies cities that are most desirable for locals, visitors, and businesspeople alike, rather than simply looking at livability or tourism appeal.” WorldsBestCities.com | #BestCities
Attachments
CONTACT: Tom Gierasimczuk Resonance Consultancy 604-649-8664 tom@resonanceco.com
Rankings derived from a worldwide survey of consultants recognize leading firms in more than 70 categories; Outlook reflects turbulent global economy
NEW YORK, Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Vault, the leader in data-driven employer rankings and verified employee reviews, today released its 2024 rankings of the Best Consulting Firms to Work For in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions. These rankings recognize the leading firms in more than 70 categories, including the Best Consulting Firms to Work For in EMEA and APAC. For each region, Vault also ranks the Most Prestigious Consulting Firms, Best Consulting Firms by Practice Area, and Best Consulting Firms by Employment Factor.
According to Eric Stutzke, SVP & General Manager of Vault, “Our EMEA and APAC rankings are unique in that they give us a clear snapshot of how consultants in each individual region view their own firms and other firms. These data-driven rankings are based on thousands of survey responses from working consultants in each region. The ranked firms include both global powerhouses with offices around the world and firms that have a more regional focus.”
To obtain data for the rankings, Vault distributed a global survey in the fall of 2023. More than 15,000 consulting professionals at all levels from around the world participated. For the EMEA rankings, more than 5,000 consultants in EMEA provided data, while more than 2,000 APAC consultants participated in the survey. Survey respondents rated their firms in several categories, including compensation, culture, diversity, hours, training, work/life balance, and wellness. Consulting professionals were also asked to rate firms in their region, other than their own, in terms of prestige. In addition, Vault collected data from more than 8,000 North American consultants; the North American Consulting Rankings were released on February 7, 2024.
Key findings from Vault’s survey of consultants and rankings include:
Bain & Company is the Best Consulting Firm to Work For in EMEA, APAC, and North America. The #1 ranked firm in every region, Bain & Company has offices in 40 countries and recently elected Christophe De Vusser, the former managing partner of its Brussels office, to serve as its next Worldwide Managing Partner (Chief Executive Officer). In all three regions, Bain & Company also secured the #1 rankings in both Formal Training and Informal Training, highlighting its top-notch learning and development programs.
Roland Berger ranks #2 in EMEA and Kearney ranks #2 in APAC. Munich-based Roland Berger took the #2 spot behind Bain & Company in the Best Consulting Firms to Work for in EMEA. Kearney, which has had a presence in the APAC region since 1972 (when the Chicago-based firm opened its Tokyo office), was #2 in the Best Consulting Firms to Work For in APAC.
Smaller, regionally focused firms are also among the Best Consulting Firms to Work For in EMEA and APAC. Archery Strategy Consulting has offices in France and Germany and ranked #10 in EMEA. Shanghai-based Kmind ranked #7 in APAC, while Bangkok-headquartered AWR Lloyd took #10. All three of these firms have under 200 consultants.
Firm culture is the top consideration for consultants in EMEA and APAC when choosing an employer. In both regions, firm culture emerges as the top decision factor.
Consultants in the APAC region gave lower scores for Business Outlook than their peers in other regions. In what was a turbulent year for businesses around the globe, Business Outlook scores fell in every region. The lowest average Business Outlook score was seen in the Asia-Pacific region, where markets have seen high degrees of shakiness and uncertainty.
The Top 10 Consulting Firms to Work For in EMEA for 2024:
1. Bain & Company Europe |
6. Strategy&, Part of the PwC Network, Europe |
2. Roland Berger Europe |
7. Alvarez & Marsal Europe |
3. Oliver Wyman Europe |
8. Advancy Europe |
4. Kearney EMEA |
9. EY-Parthenon Europe |
5. OC&C Strategy Consultants Europe |
10. Archery Strategy Consulting |
The Top 10 Consulting Firms to Work For in APAC for 2024:
1. Bain & Company Asia |
6. L.E.K. Consulting Asia |
2. Kearney Asia-Pacific |
7. Kmind |
3. Oliver Wyman Asia-Pacific |
8. Arthur D. Little Asia |
4. Roland Berger Asia |
9. Publicis Sapient Asia-Pacific |
5. Alvarez & Marsal Asia |
10. AWR Lloyd Limited |
View all the Vault Consulting Rankings.
About Vault
Vault is the leader in career research, exploration, and discovery for professionals and students. Through our proprietary data-driven Vault rankings, verified employee and intern reviews, and extensive network spanning more than 500 campuses and universities, we have been the trusted provider of career intelligence solutions for emerging talent for over two decades. Our exclusive company rankings, in-depth employer profiles, and valuable employee and intern reviews encompass a wide range of industries, including Law, Banking, Accounting, Consulting, STEM, and the top Internship programs.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vault-releases-2024-rankings-of-best-consulting-firms-to-work-for-in-emea-and-apac-regions-302066421.html
SOURCE Vault
British house prices fell by 1.4 per cent on an annual basis in December, after a revised 2.3 per cent decrease in November.
London was the region with the biggest annual decrease with prices in the capital falling by 4.8 per cent, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Wednesday.
“Our initial estimate of UK house prices shows another annual fall in December, however the pace of decrease has slowed since the previous month,” said Aimee North, head of housing market indices at the ONS.
Wednesday’s data contrasted with some other measures of Britain’s housing market which showed house prices rose in January as demand picked up after mortgage rates fell.
Other reports on the data indicated UK house prices rose for the first time in four months at the end of last year.
The average price of a home rose to £284,691 (€333,813) in December, a 0.1 per cent rise compared to the previous month.
The figures suggest the housing market may be past the worst after a marked cooling in mortgage rates in recent months. More forward-looking industry data from lenders Halifax and Nationwide Building Society have already pointed to prices rebounding.
The ONS said prices fell 1.4 per cent in the 12 months to December, with the market defying predictions of a slump triggered by 14 back-to-back interest-rate rises by the Bank of England. It was still the worst year for the property market since 2008 when the financial crisis triggered a 15 per cent decline.
“December saw demand pick up as mortgage rates decreased and 2024 has started with a tsunami of enthusiasm and enquiries from potential homebuyers,” said Stephen Perkins, managing director at broker Yellow Brick Mortgages.
“Though this data shows prices are down on an annual basis, it paints a picture of how the market was several months previously, and the picture now is really quite different.” – Reuters, Bloomberg
By Gloria Methri
Today
- Digital Identity
- Digital Transactions
- Europe
Oliver Wyman, a global management consulting firm and a business of Marsh McLennan, has reached an agreement to buy Innopay, a consultancy firm specialized in digital transactions. Innopay will complement Oliver Wyman’s existing payments consulting capabilities.
Innopay delivers strategy, scheme development, and execution in the domains of digital payments, open finance, digital identity, and data sharing. Its services capture an end-to-end offering in the payments sector to support companies and organisations to identify and seize opportunities in a digital world.
Innopay will join Oliver Wyman as a specialist consulting business within the group’s European region. It will continue to operate in the Netherlands and Germany, maintaining its presence in Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
Commenting on the transaction, Dr Stephen Whitehouse, Partner and Head of Payments, Europe, Oliver Wyman, said, “The European payments landscape is undergoing significant transformation, driven by technological advancements, changing consumer preferences, and regulatory developments. Bringing Oliver Wyman and Innopay together creates a unique offering, which will accelerate the impact of our people and work as we look to unlock value through deep industry knowledge and collaboration.”
Shikko Nijland, CEO, Innopay added, “Oliver Wyman’s acquisition of Innopay is a testament to our commitment to growth and innovation. Its global network and expertise will reinforce our ability to provide market-leading and exciting new opportunities, helping clients navigate the evolving landscape of digital transactions and providing additional opportunities for our colleagues.”
IBSi Daily News Analysis
February 12, 2024
Digital Identity
RBI’s PayTm payments bank directive spurs mom-and-pop shops to embrace alternative payment apps
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Global prices of gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) are expected to remain relatively weak in 2024, with demand subdued due to high storage levels in Europe and Asia and a mild Northern Hemisphere winter, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said on Wednesday.
“Wood Mackenzie has been forecasting lower 2024 prices for much of last year, especially compared to forward curves, amid weak market fundamental expectations,” Massimo Di Odoardo, Vice President of Gas Research at Wood Mackenzie, said.
“Global LNG supply growth will remain limited at 14 million tonnes (Mt), but with Asian LNG demand still weak, competition for LNG is unlikely to heat up,” he added.
LNG prices dropped 58 per cent in 2023 to levels slightly below $12 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) and fell further in the first two weeks of January to $10.025 on Wednesday, their lowest level since June 2023.
In Europe, gas prices have fallen 45 per cent to $10/mmBtu in the past three months, the report said, expecting market sentiment for gas and LNG to remain bearish into 2024.
Gas demand in Europe fell by 7 per cent in 2023 as mild weather reduced consumption, the report said.
“Normal weather dynamics and a possible economic rebound would support demand, however with renewable supply increasing by more than 100 terra watt hours and nuclear production in France continuing to come back, European gas demand will remain flat at best.”
In Asia, demand this year is expected to grow by 12.5 million metric tons, or 5 per cent from 2023, but remains 3 million tons lower than its 2021 levels.
On LNG contracting, Di Odoardo said overall activity is expected to soften in 2024 compared to a huge numbers of deals signed in 2021 to 2023.
Key LNG portfolio players are expected to be more selective this year, after signing 72 million tons per annum (mmtpa) in contracts in 2022 and 2023, the report said.
“However, some buyers might take a more opportunistic approach, with U.S. independent players leveraging on low Henry Hub prices to seek more exposure to global LNG prices by taking long-term LNG capacity positions, or more activity emerging in price sensitive Asian markets if contract prices fall further,” the report said.
The United States supplies buyers in both Europe and Asia, but is increasingly focused on Europe, especially with the loss of much of the continent’s supply of Russian pipeline gas following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
The world’s top management consultancy McKinsey & Company is using its position as a key advisor to the UN’s COP28 climate talks to push the interests of its big oil and gas clients, undermining efforts to end the use of the fossil fuels driving global warming, according to multiple sources and leaked documents.
Behind closed doors, the US-based firm has proposed future energy scenarios to the agenda setters of the summit that are at odds with the climate goals it publicly espouses, an AFP investigation has found.
An “energy transition narrative” drafted by the firm and obtained by AFP only reduces oil use by 50 percent by 2050, and calls for trillions in new oil and gas investment per year from now until then.
McKinsey — whose big oil clients range from America’s ExxonMobil to Saudi Arabia‘s state-run Aramco — is one of several consultancies giving free advice to the United Arab Emirates as it hosts the critical negotiations, which start on November 30.
Controversially, the talks are being presided over by Sultan Al Jaber, head of the Emirati state oil firm ADNOC.
With scientists saying 2023 is certain to be the hottest year on record, and greenhouse gas emissions headed for unprecedented levels, McKinsey is “vocally and brazenly calling for lower levels of ambition on oil phase-out at the highest levels within the COP28 presidency,” said a source who was in the room on confidential discussions with the summit hosts.
McKinsey responded insisting that “sustainability is a mission-critical priority” and that it is committed to helping clients decarbonise.
“We are proud to be supporting COP28 by providing strategic insight and analysis, and sectoral and technical expertise,” it told AFP.
‘Written by oil industry for oil industry’
Some of McKinsey’s rival consultancies operating in Dubai have worked in the spirit of finding genuine climate solutions, according to three sources who have taken part in high-level preparatory meetings, who asked not to be named as the proceedings were confidential.
“But it was very clear from an early stage that McKinsey had a conflict of interest,” said a source who took part in COP28 presidency discussions.
“They would give advice at the highest levels that was not in the best interest of the COP president as the leader of a multilateral climate agreement, but in the best interest of the COP president as the CEO of one of the region’s biggest oil and gas companies.”
Confidential documents seen by AFP back this up.
The McKinsey energy scenario for the COP28 presidency “reads as if it was written by the oil industry for the oil industry”, said Kingsmill Bond, a top equity expert who analysed it.
“This is clearly not a credible pathway to net zero,” Bond, a senior principal at the Rocky Mountain Institute think tank, told AFP.
A COP28 spokesman confirmed to AFP that “McKinsey supports COP28 through providing insights and analysis on a pro bono basis.” But to say the firm presented scenarios incompatible with global climate targets “is just incorrect”, he added.
At odds with net zero
Structured like a law firm, McKinsey employs some 35,000 people worldwide, including 2,500 partners and 700 semi-autonomous senior partners, with revenue last year reported at about $15 billion.
The 2015 Paris Agreement calls on nations to cap warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, and the UN’s scientific advisory body has said the world economy must be carbon-neutral by 2050 to stay below that.
But analysts said the pathway McKinsey suggested to Jaber for the COP talks would allow fossil fuel firms to continue to pump way too much oil and gas to hit “net zero”.
“On average, 40-50 MMb/d (millions of barrels per day) of oil is still expected to be utilized in 2050,” compared to about 100 MMb/d today, McKinsey’s narrative said.
That is twice the amount allowed in the International Energy Agency (IEA) net zero roadmap, said Jim Williams of the University of San Francisco, a top modeller of decarbonisation trajectories.
The IEA says CO2-removal technologies must scale up 100,000-fold by 2050 to stay on track for a net zero world — a mind-boggling challenge with no guarantee of success.
But the McKinsey scenario would likely require at least double that, experts said.
“It must involve either far more massive levels of negative emissions technologies” that pull CO2 out of the air, “or an even faster phase out of coal and gas”, said former BP geologist Mike Coffin, head of the Oil, Gas and Mining team at Carbon Tracker.
Oil demand to peak
McKinsey’s draft for COP28 says $2.7 trillion a year in new investment will have to be sunk into oil and gas until mid-century, clashing head-on with the IEA net-zero blueprint.
“Even with the current situation and no additional climate policies, we expect that global oil demand will peak in this decade,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.
Many oil and gas majors — buoyed by high prices and profits in the wake of the war in Ukraine — have backed off commitments to transition to renewables or, in some cases, doubled down on their core business.
“We will stay anchored in what we know we’re good at,” ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods told McKinsey in an interview published on the firm’s website in September, explaining why his company steered clear of wind and solar power.
Internal revolt
In 2021, McKinsey’s work for fossil fuel clients sparked a rebellion within its own ranks.
More than 1,100 of the firm’s employees signed an internal letter seen by AFP warning that “there is significant risk to McKinsey and our values from pursuing the current course.”
“Our inaction on (or perhaps assistance with) client emissions poses serious risk to our reputation” and “our client relationships”, they wrote.
“We have been telling the world to be bold and align to a 1.5C emissions pathway; it is long overdue that we take our own advice.”
McKinsey told AFP that the firm has committed to help clients reach the 2050 net zero target and this means engaging with “high-emitting sectors”.
“Walking away from these sectors would do nothing to solve the climate challenge,” it added.
‘We need consultancies’
As global warming accelerates, many companies are hiring consultancies to prepare for climate-related risks and opportunities.
“We do need the consultancies to help because we’ve got to get going and move very quickly,” said Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.
“But it’s essential that they actively work for the transition rather than trying to slow it down because of the vested interests of incumbents, such as the fossil fuel industry.”
The big players — McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and Bain — hire top graduates on six-figure salaries to draw up plans for clients.
A 2022 McKinsey document promoting private carbon markets seen by AFP identified several of its important clients, including oil firms Chevron and BP, power firm Drax, and mining giant Rio Tinto.
The world’s largest oil company, Aramco, declined to comment when asked by AFP about its relationship to the firm.
McKinsey says it has helped healthcare industry clients develop solar capacity, wind energy providers to become more competitive, and at least one developing country to source more electricity with renewables, but does not name the clients.
“If we want to ensure a managed decline of fossil fuel production, we can’t do so if those helping (companies) make money from fossil fuel production continue to have a seat around the table,” Pascoe Sabido, a researcher at the Corporate Europe Observatory think tank, told AFP.
He said there was a regulatory “blind spot” over consultancies’ role in handling the climate crisis.
“The lobbying and the fixing that happens under the radar… is much more dangerous because there’s much less accountability.”
‘Gas and oil consultancy’
McKinsey has weathered tough headlines over recent years.
It was forced to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars over the past two years to settle lawsuits after being accused of fuelling an opioid overdose epidemic by advising drug companies. McKinsey denied any wrongdoing.
Multiple investigations have shown that oil and gas giants were aware of the likely trajectory and impacts of global warming as early as the 1970s based on research by their own scientists, while at the same time sowing doubt on climate science that had come to the same conclusion.
McKinsey is “capable of doing good work helping clients navigate the energy transition, but that work pales in comparison to what it is doing for oil and gas,” said one former McKinsey consultant, who asked not to be named due to a non-disclosure agreement.
“They serve the world’s largest polluters,” he argued. “The firm is best understood as possibly the most powerful oil and gas consulting firm on the planet posturing as a sustainability firm, advising polluting clients on any opportunity to preserve the status quo.”