The Electric Advantage: a blueprint for affordable, secure and competitive growth
We Mean Business Coalition
We are entering a once-in-a-century contest. As the global race for innovation, productivity and investment accelerates, businesses and countries that modernize fastest will attract capital, create jobs and shape the industries of the future. Those that fail to adapt will be left behind.
The foundation of this future is electrification.
Electrifying economies – replacing fossil-fuel technologies with efficient electric alternatives – offers a powerful pathway to modernize energy systems, while strengthening economic competitiveness.
This is what we call the Electric Advantage: leveraging electrification to drive down costs, strengthen energy security and increase productivity across the economy. Yet many economies are still building the businesses of tomorrow on the energy systems of the past. How we heat homes, power industry and move goods still rely heavily on fossil fuels – systems that are often inefficient, volatile and increasingly out of step with the needs of modern economies.
Recognizing this, We Mean Business Coalition and its partners — BSR, Ceres, Climate Group, CLG Europe, The B Team and WBCSD — launched Electric Advantage, a multi-year program focused on accelerating the shift to electrified economies. By working with governments and businesses, the program aims to spur industry action, reform regulations and unlock investment that can drive electrification at scale.
To complement this launch, We Mean Business Coalition and its partners published a white paper, Electric Advantage: The Business Case for an Electrified Economy.
At the heart of this advantage is a simple economic reality. Electric vehicles, heat pumps and electrified industrial processes can deliver the same services as fossil-fuel systems but with far greater efficiency and reliability— in many cases using two to five times less energy to provide the same services. They also allow economies to capture the full value of increasingly abundant clean electricity, extending it across end uses and displacing fossil fuels at the point of use.
Electricity itself is becoming cleaner and cheaper thanks to the rapid growth of renewable energy, with solar and wind power now among the cheapest sources of new energy generation in many parts of the world.
The combination of efficient electric technologies, the right system and market design and low-cost renewable electricity can have profound implications for affordability. For households, that means lower bills and healthier living environments. For business, it means reduced operating costs and greater resilience against price shocks.
Not only can electrification stabilize energy costs – it also reduces exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets, which can see prices skyrocket due to global events.
Today, many countries depend on imported fossil fuels, leaving economies vulnerable to geopolitical disruption and global price swings. Electrified systems, powered by domestic clean energy, strengthen energy security by offering a more stable alternative, converting exposure into resilience.
Finally, electrification is rapidly driving economic competitiveness. A new industrial race is emerging around electrified technologies – from electric vehicles and batteries to heat pumps and smart energy systems.
Business recognizes this opportunity. Companies and investors are increasingly factoring ‘’electrification readiness’’ into their decisions, seeking locations where clean electricity is abundant, grids are modern and policies support long-term investment. Countries that build strong electrified energy systems position themselves to capture new industries, attract capital and create jobs.
Despite growing interest, electrification is not yet accelerating at the pace needed in many geographies. Doing so requires treating electrification as a whole-economy and business strategy, not a series of isolated technology upgrades. Many companies are experimenting with electrified solutions, but relatively few have fully scaled them across their operations. To move faster, businesses need governments to put in place the enabling conditions so that they can confidently invest and deliver the benefits of an electrified economy.
This means governments need to send clear and consistent signals at every level. At the international level, governments can send stronger signals, such as a global goal or collective commitments, to reinforce confidence in the direction of travel. At the national and local level, governments can spur investment through stable standards and market rules, aligned incentives and financial support, faster permitting and grid connections, and investment in the infrastructure, clean supply, workforce and supply chains that can deliver electrification at scale.
Businesses must also lead – by investing early, building demand, strengthening supply chains and engaging with policymakers to help remove barriers to deployment.
The reality is clear: electrification can deliver real-world economic benefits, from lower costs and stronger energy security to healthier communities and more competitive industries.
Countries and businesses that harness the Electric Advantage will build the foundations of prosperity for decades to come, creating economies that are more affordable, more secure and more productive. In doing so, they will accelerate toward a cheaper, safer and healthier future.