Clean industry: transformational trends | report

The third edition of the Global Project Tracker is now live. As the latest analysis shows, clean industries are central to a burgeoning new economic era. With the pipeline of projects continuing to grow, 800 clean industry plants are now being planned, built or are operational in nearly 70 countries and on every continent, with chemicals and fuels leading the way. To get all these projects live and realise the full potential of this pipeline, barriers to investment must be lifted starting today.

Explore this new analysis to see the trends in detail – incorporating country progress, breakout sectors, investment challenges, and momentum drivers. Download report | Clean industry: transformational trends

Report insights

Clean Industry: transformational trends, report written by MPP and supported by the Industrial Transition Accelerator (ITA) – global alliances focused on advancing clean industry transformation – shows a global $1.6 trillion pipeline of projects announced but not yet financed. Industrial sunbelt countries account for 59% of this investment pipeline, compared to 18% for the US, 10% for the EU, and just 6% for China. Projects span key sectors, including aluminium, chemicals, cement, aviation and steel.

Global opportunity

China leads over US and EU but global analysis highlights industrial production diversifying beyond historic bases. New ‘industrial sunbelt’ set to overtake the world’s biggest economies in clean industry race:

• ‘New industrial sunbelt’ countries hold over half of $1.6 trillion global investment pipeline as clean ammonia, critical to food chains, shows signs of being a breakout market
• $250 billion of financing already committed to produce clean materials, chemicals and fuels, but a five-fold investment opportunity exists to unlock almost 700 announced projects across the world  
• Governments in nearly 70 countries can secure early mover advantage by supporting the construction of announced projects through policy measures

MPPs Global Project Tracker shows that a new Industrial Revolution is on the rise. Perhaps surprisingly, developing economies have an enormous opportunity to leapfrog fossil fuels in heavy industry and transport creating the infrastructure for sustainable economic growth in the 21st century. We now need to unlock the full potential of the clean industrial revolution and exponentially accelerate the existing pipeline.

Christiana Figueres
Co-Founder of Global Optimism

China remains the frontrunner in clean industry development, securing a quarter of the $250 billion of investment in clean plants to date, closely followed by the US at 22% and the EU at 14%. But a bloc of emerging markets including India, Egypt and Brazil, part of the ‘new industrial sunbelt’, is quickly catching up to countries with historic industrial bases, according to new data from the Global Project Tracker and accompanying report published today by Mission Possible Partnership (MPP).

The ‘big three’ industrial leaders may soon be overtaken by a host of newly industrialising countries capitalising on favourable conditions for renewable energy production and building momentum in sectors at the forefront of a new clean industrial revolution. This shift points to a potential industrial realignment, as the production of materials, chemicals and fuels moves across geographies and new trade corridors emerge. At the heart of this shift is the industrial sunbelt, a region spanning Africa, Asia and South America where abundant natural resources are being harnessed to provide solar energy and supportive policy environments and cost advantages combine to create ideal conditions for new industrial processes.

Industrial sunbelt countries, such as Indonesia and Morocco, have secured a fifth of investment in clean industrial plants to date. However, a $948 billion investment opportunity exists for their announced projects, particularly as economies dominated by agriculture increasingly see lower-cost clean ammonia for fertiliser as both an economic opportunity and a chance to build increased food security. 

Download report | Clean industry: transformational trends

Press release | New ‘industrial sunbelt’ set to overtake the world’s biggest economies in clean industry race

Learn more | Global Project Tracker

View | Global Project Tracker interactive data map