British companies want green tax breaks

A new global survey by workspace solutions provider Regus, has found that 76% of UK companies have declared that government tax breaks are required to accelerate green investment take up.

The Regus survey revealed that just 37% of companies worldwide actually measure their emissions and less than a fifth of companies (19%) measure the carbon footprint left by their activities. 46% of companies globally declare that they will only invest in low-carbon equipment if the running costs are the same or lower than those of conventional equipment. A disappointing 40% have invested in low-carbon equipment and only 38% have a company policy to do so.

In the UK specifically, the survey found that only a fifth of companies monitor their carbon footprint (20%) and a mere 34% monitor their energy consumption. In addition to this, a full 66% have no company policy to invest in energy efficient equipment. This despite the fact that globally Green investment funds have amassed £7.8 billion and capitalists backed a record 180 green companies in the first quarter of 2010, investing a total of £1.2 billion.

Only $48m of that money was invested in British companies, spread across 16 firms, according to data from Cleantech Group, a green investment research firm. British firms are in fact reported to have attracted only 2.5% of the the funds invested in green technology globally.