Decarbonisation Pathways5 / 12
Marginal Abatement Cost (MAC) Curves
Ranking all abatement options by cost per tonne; visual roadmap.
10 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead · Last reviewed July 2026
With many possible measures competing to cut emissions, an organisation needs a way to prioritise. The marginal abatement cost curve ranks the options by cost-effectiveness, revealing where to start and how far each measure goes - a central tool for planning decarbonisation.
In this lesson
- 01The prioritisation problem
- 02What a MAC curve shows
- 03Negative-cost measures
- 04Reading the curve
- 05The shape of the curve
- 06Limitations of MAC curves
- 07From curve to roadmap
- 08Sources and further reading