Drivers of the development of global climate-change- mitigation technology: a patent-based decomposition analysis

Abstract

The development of the climate-change- mitigation technology has received widespread attention from both academic and policy studies. Nevertheless, very few studies have explained how and why economies contribute differently to global development. This paper decomposed the development of the global climate-change-mitigation technology, proxied by patent-based indicators, from 1996 to 2015 into several predefined factors. The results show that the worldwide surge of climate-change-mitigation-technology patents from 1996 to 2011 is driven by increased concentration on green invention, improved research intensity, and enlarged economic scale, while the falling of patent counts from 2011 to 2015 is predominantly due to less concentration on green invention. Among different climate-change-mitigation technologies, the type-specific development is attributed to different dominant factors, and the resulting priority change can reflect the shift of both global research and development (R&D) resource and market demand. Regarding regional contributions, the resulting economy-specific contributions to each driving factor can be used to design the policies to promote the development of the global climate-change-mitigation technology.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

climate change mitigation / technology development / logarithmic mean Divisia index / green patents

References

[1] Batten J A, Kinateder H, Szilagyi P G, Addressing COP21 using a stock and oil market integration index. Energy Policy, 2018, 116: 127–136

[2] Costa-Campi M T, García-Quevedo J, Martínez-Ros E. What are the determinants of investment in environmental R&D? Energy Policy, 2017b, 104: 455–465

[3] Duan H, Zhang G, Wang S, Robust climate change research: a review on multi-model analysis. Environmental Research Letters, 2019, 14(3): 033001

[4] Geng Y, Fujita T, Chiu A, Responding to the Paris Climate Agreement: global climate change mitigation efforts. Frontiers in Energy, 2018, 12(3): 333–337

[5] Buchholz W, Dippl L, Eichenseer M. Subsidizing renewables as part of taking leadership in international climate policy: the German case. Energy Policy, 2019, 129: 765–773

[6] Costa-Campi M T, del Rio P, Trujillo-Baute E. Trade-offs in energy and environmental policy. Energy Policy, 2017, 104: 415–418

[7] Shao S, Yang L, Gan C, Using an extended LMDI model to explore techno-economic drivers of energy-related industrial CO₂ emission changes: a case study for Shanghai (China). Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2016b, 55: 516–536

[8] International Energy Agency (IEA). Energy Technology Perspectives 2017. Paris, France, 2017

[9] Dussaux D, Dechezleprêtre A, Glachant M. Intellectual property rights protection and the international transfer of low-carbon technologies. London: Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Paper No. 288, 2018

[10] He J. Situation and measures of China’s CO₂ emission mitigation after the Paris Agreement. Frontiers in Energy, 2018, 12(3): 353–361

[11] Fujii H, Managi S. Decomposition analysis of sustainable green technology inventions in China. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2019, 139: 10–16

[12] Dechezleprêtre A, Martin R. Low-carbon innovation in the UK: evidence from patent data. Policy Paper of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy. London School of Economics and Political Science, 2010

[13] Albino V, Ardito L, Dangelico R M, Understanding the development trends of low-carbon energy technologies: a patent analysis. Applied Energy, 2014, 135: 836–854

[14] Dechezleprêtre A, Glachant M, Haščič I, Invention and transfer of climate change–mitigation technologies: a global analysis. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2011, 5(1): 109–130

[15] Gallagher K S, Holdren J P, Sagar A D. Energy-technology innovation. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 2006, 31(1): 193–237

[16] Yan Z, Du K, Yang Z, Convergence or divergence? Understanding the global development trend of low-carbon technologies. Energy Policy, 2017, 109: 499–509

[17] Aghion P, Dechezleprêtre A, Hémous D, Carbon taxes, path dependency, and directed technical change: evidence from the auto industry. Journal of Political Economy, 2016, 124(1): 1–51

[18] Ghisetti C, Quatraro F. Beyond inducement in climate change: does environmental performance spur environmental technologies? A regional analysis of cross-sectoral differences. Ecological Economics, 2013, 96: 99–113

[19] Johnstone N, Haščič I, Popp D. Renewable energy policies and technological innovation: evidence based on patent counts. Environmental and Resource Economics, 2010, 45(1): 133–155

[20] Verdolini E, Galeotti M. At home and abroad: an empirical analysis of innovation and diffusion in energy technologies. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2011, 61(2): 119–134

[21] Gallagher K S, Anadon L D, Kempener R, Trends in investments in global energy research, development, and demonstration. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2011, 2(3): 373–396

[22] Shao S, Hu Z, Cao J, Environmental regulation and enterprise innovation: a review. Business Strategy and the Environment, 2020, 29(3): 1465–1478

[23] Li K, Lin B. Impact of energy technology patents in China: evidence from a panel cointegration and error correction model. Energy Policy, 2016, 89: 214–223

[24] Sun H, Edziah B K, Sun C, Institutional quality, green innovation and energy efficiency. Energy Policy, 2019, 135: 111002

[25] Griliches Z. Patent statistics as economic indicators: a survey. Journal of Economic Literature, 1990, 28: 1661–1707

[26] Haščič I, Migotto M. Measuring environmental innovation using patent data. Paris: OECD Environment Working Papers, No. 89. OECD Publishing, 2015

[27] Jaffe A B, Palmer K. Environmental regulation and innovation: a panel data study. Review of Economics and Statistics, 1997, 79(4): 610–619

[28] Lanjouw J O, Pakes A, Putnam J. How to count patents and value intellectual property: the uses of patent renewal and application data. Journal of Industrial Economics, 1998, 46(4): 405–432

[29] Popp D. The effect of new technology on energy consumption. Resource and Energy Economics, 2001, 23(3): 215–239

[30] Pasimeni F. SQL query to increase data accuracy and completeness in PATSTAT. World Patent Information, 2019, 57: 1–7

[31] Shao S, Liu J, Geng Y, Uncovering driving factors of carbon emissions from China’s mining sector. Applied Energy, 2016, 166: 220–238

[32] Wang Q, Hang Y, Su B, Contributions to sector-level carbon intensity change: an integrated decomposition analysis. Energy Economics, 2018, 70: 12–25

[33] Zha D, Zhou D, Zhou P. Driving forces of residential CO₂ emissions in urban and rural China: an index decomposition analysis. Energy Policy, 2010, 38(7): 3377–3383

[34] Zhang X, Zhao X, Jiang Z, How to achieve the 2030 CO₂ emission-reduction targets for China’s industrial sector: retrospective decomposition and prospective trajectories? Global Environmental Change, 2017, 44: 83–97

[35] Ang B W. The LMDI approach to decomposition analysis: a practical guide. Energy Policy, 2005, 33(7): 867–871

[36] Zheng J, Mi Z, Coffman D M, Regional development and carbon emissions in China. Energy Economics, 2019, 81: 25–36

[37] Ley M, Stucki T, Woerter M. The impact of energy prices on green innovation. Energy Journal, 2016, 37(1): 41–75

[38] Wang X, Bai M, Xie C. Investigating CO₂ mitigation potentials and the impact of oil price distortion in China’s transport sector. Energy Policy, 2019, 130: 320–327

[39] Yang Z, Shao S, Li C, Alleviating the misallocation of R&D inputs in China’s manufacturing sector: from the perspectives of factor-biased technological innovation and substitution elasticity. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2020, 151: 119878

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press