Environmental Policy and Technological Innovation

Technological change is undoubtedly one of the keys to ensuring that economic growth and environmental improvements co-exist. As such it is vitally important that environmental policies and policy instruments provide the right incentives for the development and diffusion of ‘environmental’ technologies.

As part of its work on decoupling environmental pressures from economic growth, the OECD’s Environment Directorate has launched a project on the effects of public policy on technological innovation with the aim of improving the design, implementation and evaluation of environmental policies. Drawing upon patent data, the links between public policy and technological change are being examined.

As a prerequisite for any such work, appropriate indicators need to be developed. This underlying developmental work includes:

• Development of the methodological basis for indicators of invention and transfer and the associated programming of extractions from PATSTAT.
• Development of patent search strategies for various areas of ‘environmental’ technologies.
  

In the analytical work, data on selected OECD countries is analyzed to study innovation effects of alternative policy instruments (such as emission or technology standards, investment incentives, taxes, tariffs, and tradable permits).

• More generally, recent work has analyzed the characteristics of environmental policy framework (stringency, predictability, flexibility) that may be amenable, or not, to induce innovation and technology transfer;
• Dedicated work in energy and climate change mitigation technologies has been undertaken, including a study on the determinants of inventive activity in renewables and a study on the determinants and consequences of international technology transfer.
  

Innovation in Climate Change Mitigation Technologies, Compared to All Sectors

OECD 2010. OECD Project on Environmental Policy and Technological Innovation.
Based on data extracted from the EPO Worldwide Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT).
Transfer of wind power technologies from Annex I to non-Annex I countries: 1988-2007

OECD 2009. OECD Project on Environmental Policy and Technological Innovation.
Based on data extracted from the EPO Worldwide Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT).