Minimal growth in green innovation in 2019, warns WIPO
Innovation in environmentally-friendly technologies barely rose in 2019 although the growth of Chinese patent filings in the field has been “extraordinary”, prompting calls from the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) for a green patent surge to fight climate change.
Ahead of World IP Day on April 26, WIPO analysed international patent filings via it's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in four categories of green energy technologies: alternative energy production; energy conservation technologies; green transportation; and nuclear power generation.
PCT applications, containing at least one green energy code from the organisation's International Patent Classification (IPC) green inventory, grew to 16,940 applications in 2019. This is only a 1.3% increase from 2018, lagging a peak of 17,880 in 2016 and representing just over 6% of the total number of PCT applications filed in 2019.
Francis Gurry, director general of WIPO, added: “Climate change has far-reaching effects for all of us and innovation in green tech sectors will be key to successfully addressing this global challenge.
“Policymakers, businesses, academic institutions, inventors around the world: let’s all work together to create a green-tech innovation surge that meets the requirements of our times.”
A world leader
While green innovation is emerging from across the world, a few countries dominate the vast majority of applications—the top five countries in 2019 (Japan, China, US, Germany, and South Korea) accounted for more than 76% of all green patent applications filed under the PCT.
However, of the top ten countries, all but China and South Korea experienced a decline in filings between 2013 and 2019.
The growth of Chinese PCT filings in the field has been “extraordinary” in most green energy technologies, said WIPO, adding that China has become a world leader in the patenting of green transportation technologies in recent years.
Barriers to growth
PCT green patent applications have declined overall since 2013, hindered by a drop in alternative energy technologies, which fell 18% since 2013.
On the other hand, patent applications for technologies that improve efficiency increased by 9% in that same time period, driven by energy conservation tech (10%) and to a lesser degree by transportation (3%).
According to WIPO, the better performance of efficient use technology, as compared to alternative energy, may reflect activity in global energy markets.
“The price of energy and commodities took a large fall after 2014, which may have reduced the incentive to find sustainable green energy sources,” said the UN body, adding that efficient-use technologies also fell slightly in conjunction with energy prices, but not to the same degree.
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