GREENPEACE MCKINSEY’S CURVE

Visualization design case study

background

• Greenpeace UK commissioned an infographic for a report on McKinsey’s Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MAC).

background

• The MAC curve is a bar chart which describes a set of different options available to reduce carbon emissions.

• MAC curves are a succession of different steps, each one being a different potential measure, – its height represents its cost – its width represents the amount of carbon abatement

it could deliver.

MAC Curve issues

• some issues with McKinsey’s curve.– 1. McKinsey has never been transparent about the

data and assumptions used for the curve calculation. • That is, there has never been any scientific peer review of

any of the calculations made to draw the MAC curve.

MAC Curve issues

• some issues with McKinsey’s curve.– 2. there are issues about the underestimating or

overestimating of certain measures represented in the curve.

• The MAC curve suffers of oversimplification of the representation of an economy, as it doesn’t take in account many of the interactions and evolvements of an economic environment.

The design process

• a structural sketch of the visualization– we worked closely with Greenpeace by sending them

a structural sketch of the visualization, showed in the image below.

The design process

• This schematic was then sent back to us by Greenpeace, with annotations about changes, ratings, and order of the various sections.

• changes have been radical: Greenpeace wanted the MAC curve to cover the whole spread while other details work as “reading guides” to the curve.

The final artwork• Greenpeace highlighted some issues of the McKinsey’s curve

and we decided to represent each of them with an illustration able to convey the message contained in the description boxes.

• In the top part of the visualization there are the three main reasons why the McKinsey’s Marginal Abatement Cost curve is not a reliable tool while in the main section of the map a few examples columns are highlighted in the graph. The connection between the curve graph and the illustrations is strengthened by the representation of a three dimensional column in each of the illustrations.

The final artwork

• In the top part of the visualization – there are the three main reasons why the McKinsey’s

Marginal Abatement Cost curve is not a reliable tool – in the main section of the map a few examples

columns are highlighted in the graph. – The connection between the curve graph and the

illustrations is strengthened by the representation of a three dimensional column in each of the illustrations.

The design process

• The visualization has been included in the Greenpeace report about McKinsey’s MAC curve and its effects on REDD

See full size photos