Climate change and eco-innovation. A patent data assessment of environmentally sound technologies

Abstract

In recent years eco-innovation studies have placed special emphasis on environmental management in the company encouraging the introduction of a prevention philosophy rather than correction measures of environmental damage. The aim of this article is to contribute to this debate but in the environmentally sound technologies field due to their importance for mitigating climate change. Analyzing the information of the patents filed at the European Patent Office (EPO) from 1978 to 2010, the research carried out a microeconomic analysis about the technological trajectory followed by these technologies. The paper concludes that the efforts in these kinds of technologies are led by developed countries and are still mainly concentrated in corrective technologies rather than preventive ones. Furthermore there has been a shift from the promotion of renewable technologies to abatement policies but if the emissions must be stabilized it is necessary to push public policies in this direction as well as collaboration between basic research and industry as a way to adapt it to the real needs for addressing climate change.

Keywords:

• patents
• environmental sound technologies
• climate change
• eco-innovation
• R&D internationalization
• technology transfer
• technological competencies

Acknowledgements

This paper is part of the work done in the framework of the research funded by Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain (Ref. ECO2010-16609).

Notes

1. According to calculations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC, 2007, p. 515), Agro Forestry has a potential of mitigation around 5.5 GT of CO2 equivalents by 2030.

2. Similar definitions could be found in Berkel (2007) or OECD (2009).

3. This hypothesis is widely criticized by authors who believe that there is no conclusive empirical evidence to establish a relationship between innovation and competitiveness impact on business results (Hart & Ahuja, 1996; Klassen & McLaughlin, 1996; Russo & Fouts, 1997). At a microeconomic level, the results can vary among companies in the same industry due to structural factors such as the firm size (Hillary, 2003), the degree of internationalization, their position in the value chain, the importance given by managers to environmental management (Fineman & Clarke, 1996) and its strategic approach to innovation or the introduction of new environmental products (Avella, del Brío, Junquera, & Valle, 2001), their geographical location or the risk of accidents arising from industrial activity.

4. The EPO database has some advantages when compared with other patent offices. Firstly, EPO has no bias-country and is the patent office most internationalized. That is because any patent filed can potentially be extended to all signatories of the Munich Convention. Secondly, fees paid by the patent application in EPO are very high, which is an economical filter that tends to eliminate patents with low industrial value (Grupp & Schomach, 1999).

5. The IPC Green Inventory collects environmental sound technology as listed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This system classifies into different technological areas and at several hierarchical levels.

6. Each topic is identified with an alphanumeric code that provides IPC based on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) classification table.

7. According to Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP) environmental technologies encompass technologies and processes to manage pollution (e.g. air pollution control, waste management), less polluting and less resource-intensive products and services and ways to manage resources more efficiently (e.g. water supply, energy-saving technologies) (COM, 2004, p. 2).

8. Firms with more than 10 patents that recognized in their websites their global activity were considered as a Global Corporation.

9. India has undertaken other initiatives related to climate change. In Government of India, 2002, India approved the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPPCC) and submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on a Technology Transfer Mechanism.

10. Cooperations are patents with more than one applicant that are not ownership related.