The pursuit of green technologies to address climate change and its effects has gained momentum as countries seek to curb and reverse the negative effects. At the heart of this process lie private companies that have the added incentive of reducing their dependency on fossil fuels. As illustrated in the early days of the financial crisis, prices of conventional sources of energy proved volatile with the majority of industries being affected.

In the view of past events, European firms seem to be learning from the mistake of not having invested in sustainable energy. This can be seen from the results of a new study pointing to the development of innovations in the field of Clean Energy Technologies (CET). Along with the United States, South Korea and Japan, the UK, France and Germany contributed to around 80% of patents submitted in relation to CETs. The report, carried out by the European Patent Office (EPO) in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), points to an increase in CET patents filed since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997.

Although the global recession may have tempted some industries to abandon CET investment, the European Union considers the field to be one of the pillars of present and future economic activity as illustrated in the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Furthermore, patent documents also contribute to the increase of spread of knowledge within the area in question as underlined by the EPO’s Chief, Benoît Battistelli, “Patents play a key role in providing information about existing technologies, the level of their development and geographic spread. This information facilitates an informed debate on climate change.”

The EPO chief also remarked that developing countries, namely China and India, are making headway in the clean technologies sector as evidenced by the Chinese economy becoming a key player in the wind energy sector. Such a factor indicates that progress in the area of clean technology is not restricted to developed countries. Moreover, the notion of technology transfer, termed as the sharing of knowledge, resources and technologies, is crucial to a coordinated response to the curbing of climate change.

Progress registered by the EU is encouraging as is the prospect of the streamlined European Patent. A coherent legislative framework is key to other EU countries joining the process of developing new green technologies. Therefore, this should prevent the current positive results registered by European countries from being a temporary advantage.

Simon Grech

Information Executive, MEUSAC