Nearly a thousand (882) European companies have report a total of €124bn in new low carbon capital investment and R&D in 2019, with current company investments expected to deliver at least 2.4Gt of lifetime emissions savings.
However, according to the research by CDP companies will need to double their low carbon capital expenditure (CAPEX) to be consistent with the EU’s new climate target of 2050.

Doubling Down: Europe’s Low Carbon Investment Opportunity, compiled by CDP and Oliver Wyman, finds 882 stock listed European companies reported €59bn of new low carbon capital investments and €65bn in new research and development (R&D) spend last year. The companies analysed have annual emissions equivalent to three quarters of the EU total and represent approximately 76 per cent of European market capitalisation.

There is considerable variation between the different European countries however, with Germany leading the investment – not a surprise given that the majority of this is in EV related areas as Germany’s car industry struggles to transition to a low carbon future and redeem itself from the emissions scandals. Although the UK does well, coming sixth, per capita it still has less investment that comparators who have also already made considerable efforts to move to low carbon.

Rank	Country	Companies reporting	€ billions, 2019
1	Germany	69	44.4
2	Spain	48	37.9
3	Italy	42	24.3
4	France	79	6.0
5	Denmark	14	4.5
6	UK	194	4.0

Overall, across Europe, the biggest investment was in R&D for EV technologies, with €43bn set aside, and capital investments in renewable energy (€16bn), energy grid infrastructure (€15bn) and demand-side response programmes for intelligent energy use (€8 billion).

The report estimates that companies would need to double the low carbon share of capital expenditure (CAPEX) from 12 per cent to 25 per cent per year to be consistent with a net-zero emissions pathway by 2050, which is needed for the EU’s new climate neutrality target.

Full repoer here.

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