Unleashing the Potential of Industrial Clusters 2025

Foreword Industrial clusters are essential for scaling clean energy infrastructure. By aggregating demand and sharing resources, knowledge and risks, they unlock opportunities to deploy clean energy solutions. This is critical, as the hard-to-abate industrial sector accounts for nearly 30% of global Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, rising to nearly 40% when including the hard-to-abate transport sector (aviation, shipping and trucking).1 The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Accenture and EPRI, is committed to improving the cooperation and common vision of co-located companies and public institutions to drive the energy transition, economic growth and employment through the Transitioning Industrial Clusters (TIC) initiative. The initiative is a growing community of 33 signatory clusters spanning 16 countries across five continents, representing a potential for carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions reduction of 832 million tonnes, an amount comparable to the annual CO2e emissions of a country like Saudi Arabia.2 In addition, these clusters contribute $492 billion to global gross domestic product (GDP) and create or protect 4.3 million jobs.3 Since the last World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in 2024, we welcomed 13 new signatory cluster members to the community from countries across the globe, including Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Thailand and the United Kingdom. This white paper examines the current state of clean energy infrastructure and identifies potential solutions that industrial clusters, transport and logistics industries, and the wider clean energy value chain can explore in accelerating its deployment. To successfully deploy clean energy infrastructure, increased collaboration is required, both within and across clusters. There are multiple leading examples of how stakeholders have successfully used clusters to achieve outcomes that would be unattainable in isolation. This collaborative approach must be scaled by government, professional, industry, academic and research and development (R&D) organizations worldwide to meet the Paris Agreement’s goals. By highlighting leading examples, we aim to inspire companies and institutions to enhance their collaborative efforts, thereby scaling the necessary infrastructure for the energy transition. We would like to thank all involved community members, policy-makers and corporate leaders for their time and contributions to this white paper.4Roberto Bocca Head, Centre for Energy and Materials; Member, Executive Committee, World Economic ForumNeva Espinoza Senior Vice-President, Energy Supply and Low- Carbon Resources, EPRIStephanie Jamison Chair, Global Resources Industry Practices; Lead, Global Sustainability Services, Accenture Unleashing the Full Potential of Industrial Clusters: Solutions for Clean EnergiesJanuary 2025 Unleashing the Full Potential of Industrial Clusters: Infrastructure Solutions for Clean Energies 3