Publication:
Invention and Global Diffusion of Technologies for Climate Change Adaptation: A Patent Analysis

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorDechezlepretre, Antoine
dc.contributor.authorFankhauser, Sam
dc.contributor.authorGlachant, Matthieu
dc.contributor.authorStoever, Jan
dc.contributor.authorTouboul, Simon
dc.date.accessioned2020-06-11T18:34:31Z
dc.date.available2020-06-11T18:34:31Z
dc.date.issued2020-06-01
dc.description.abstractThe Earth's climate has already begun to change and will inevitably continue to do so. Even if the targets set in the Paris Agreement are met—to keep the global surface temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius relative to preindustrial levels—many regions will still suffer severely from the consequences of climate change. They will have more frequent extreme weather events, changes in precipitation patterns, rising sea levels, temperature increases, and many other related effects (IPCC 2018). In this context, technology is certainly a major tool to increase societies’ ability to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change (Klein and Tol 1997; Miao 2017; GCA 2019). International technology transfer hence becomes particularly important because a large fraction of the innovation activity in today's knowledge-based economy takes place in the Global North, while technologies for climate change adaptation are urgently needed in low- and middle-income countries, which are particularly vulnerable to climate shocks (Fankhauser and McDermott 2014) Increasing the availability of technology in vulnerable countries requires knowledge of the current geography of innovation. To that end, this report uses patent data to describe and quantify the invention and global diffusion of technologies for climate change adaptation over recent decades based on a global patent database. Importantly, relying on patent data restricts the scope of the analysis to solutions for adaptation that are at the technological frontier and excludes the role of nontechnological forms of innovation and low-tech options. A particular emphasis is put on the case of low- and middle-income countries, which combine high vulnerability to climate change with low technological resources. The analysis relies on patent data from the World Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT), maintained by the European Patent Office (EPO), which covers the population of patents filed worldwide. We use the EPO's new "Y02A" category to identify all patents in PATSTAT pertaining to "technologies for adaptation to climate change." The classification was released in April 2018 and has so far never been used in empirical analyses. Although innovation scholars and analysts widely use patent data to map technology fields, such data do have some drawbacks, as the report discusses. The patent data are thus complemented with data on foreign direct investment (FDI), which allow us to test the robustness of the results on technology transfer.en
dc.identifierhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/648341591630145546/Invention-and-Global-Diffusion-of-Technologies-for-Climate-Change-Adaptation-A-Patent-Analysis
dc.identifier.doi10.1596/33883
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/33883
dc.languageEnglish
dc.publisherWorld Bank, Washington, DC
dc.rightsCC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holderWorld Bank
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo
dc.subjectCLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION
dc.subjectCLIMATE CHANGE TECHNOLOGY
dc.subjectTECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
dc.subjectCLIMATE HAZARD
dc.subjectPATENTS
dc.titleInvention and Global Diffusion of Technologies for Climate Change Adaptationen
dc.title.subtitleA Patent Analysisen
dc.typeReporten
dc.typeRapportfr
dc.typeInformees
dspace.entity.typePublication
okr.crossref.titleInvention and Global Diffusion of Technologies for Climate Change Adaptation
okr.date.disclosure2020-06-08
okr.doctypeEconomic & Sector Work
okr.doctypeEconomic & Sector Work::Other Environmental Study
okr.docurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/648341591630145546/Invention-and-Global-Diffusion-of-Technologies-for-Climate-Change-Adaptation-A-Patent-Analysis
okr.guid648341591630145546
okr.identifier.doi10.1596/33883
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum090224b087a09f22_1_0
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum32107031
okr.identifier.report149316
okr.importedtrueen
okr.language.supporteden
okr.pdfurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/648341591630145546/pdf/Invention-and-Global-Diffusion-of-Technologies-for-Climate-Change-Adaptation-A-Patent-Analysis.pdfen
okr.themeSocial protection and risk management :: Natural disaster management
okr.topicEnvironment::Adaptation to Climate Change
okr.topicEnvironment::Environmental Engineering
okr.topicScience and Technology Development::Science of Climate Change
okr.topicScience and Technology Development::Technology Innovation
okr.unitGFDRR
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Invention-and-Global-Diffusion-of-Technologies-for-Climate-Change-Adaptation-A-Patent-Analysis.pdf
Size:
5.7 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
Invention-and-Global-Diffusion-of-Technologies-for-Climate-Change-Adaptation-A-Patent-Analysis.txt
Size:
160.86 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download
Collections
Other Environmental Study