Nearly all commercial real estate assets run by asset management professionals in Europe will miss their carbon emissions reduction targets, according to a survey of 250 European commercial real estate asset managers in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, by ESG data intelligence firm, Deepki. 

Just 5% of commercial real estate asset managers say that 81-99% of portfolios will meet 2030’s 50% emissions reduction target, while fewer than 7% say their property portfolios will be net zero by 2050. 

Optimism for hitting targets improved when looking at smaller proportions of the real estate holdings. While 40% of those surveyed expect just 41-60% of their commercial real estate assets to have reduced carbon emissions by 2030, around 22% said that 61-80% of their commercial property investments would have managed to reduce carbon emissions by 50% in the next eight years. 

Also, 90% of survey participants said that less than 20% of their commercial real estate assets would have halved their emissions by 2030. 

The picture improves for 2050 targets with one-quarter of asset managers expecting between 61% and 80% of their commercial real estate portfolios to be net zero by the deadline. More than a third (35%) of respondents say between 41% and 60% of their property investment will be net zero by 2050.