Britain’s biggest property developers have questioned new carbon emissions targets proposed by the the UK Green Building Council.
The council directly challenged the construction industry this week to halve emissions by 2020, exceeding current government targets to cut emissions by 34%.
But the British Property Federation — which represents property giants like British Land, Land Securities and Hammerson — said the ambitious targets will be missed without government incentives, and accused the government of an “obvious oversight” in not including existing buildings in its carbon reduction targets.
BPF chief executive Liz Peace said: “The sort of cut being called for by GBC could only happen if there was a massive government programme of action — both sticks and carrots — designed to incentivise or require cuts in emissions from existing buildings.
“We are not going to oppose any moves to make things better but there’s no point being unrealistic, saying we will get our emissions down by 95% by next week, because it’s not going to happen.
“It’s not about focusing on new buildings which by definition are going to be pretty green anyway. New stock represents a tiny 2% of UK building stock.”
The federation instead wants display energy certificates (DECs), which measure the operational performance of a building, to be made mandatory.
Paul King, chief executive of the GBC, insisted the target was realistic. “A target like this can help us focus on identifying those obstacles and working together to overcome them,” he said.
“It will require industry to step up to the plate and will require government to help make it happen. This is absolutely achievable if we set our minds to it and comes with huge economic benefits.”
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