Europe’s top companies need to more than double their current level of spending on low-carbon projects to meet the European Commission’s flagship goal of ‘climate neutrality’ by 2050, according to a report released on Tuesday (25 February).

The major study of 882 publicly-traded companies across multiple sectors by climate research provider CDP and consultancy Oliver Wyman showed they spent €124 billion on capital investment and research and development in 2019.

That amounted to around 12% of total investment. To be on track to meet the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 however, that figure needs to jump to 25%, said CDP Europe’s Managing Director Steven Tebbe, according to Euractiv.com.

The biggest areas for new investment were electric vehicle technologies, with spend of some €43 billion, renewable energy, at €16 billion, and energy grid infrastructure, at €15 billion, the report said.