German Economic Institute publishes report on green innovations in NRW's primary materials industry
The climate-neutral transformation of the economy poses major challenges for the energy-intensive basic industry in North Rhine-Westphalia. At the same time, the development of green raw materials and production processes also offers promising potential that can transform NRW into the industrial location of the future.
On the way there, the inventiveness and innovative ability of the local companies are more important than ever. In order to scientifically record the innovation change, an analysis of patent activities was carried out using the IW patent database as part of this study.
The focus was on identifying climate-relevant innovations from North Rhine-Westphalia companies in energy-intensive industries as well as energy and gas supply in the period 2010 to 2018. Since patents, by definition, already aim to further develop the status quo, this study used one to avoid a certain arbitrariness A definition of climate-relevant patent applications has been developed in the narrower sense, in which the positive climate impact must be the core and not a mere side effect of the innovation to be patented.
In total, around 8,200 (both climate-relevant and non-climate-relevant) patent applications from 220 companies were identified for the period under review, with 16.4 percent meeting the criterion “climate-relevant in the narrower sense” and can therefore be described as green innovations. There was a slight increase in total patent applications over the period under consideration. Climate-related patent applications followed this positive trend until 2017 and jumped by almost 37 percent in the following year. Remarkable: while a decline in non-climate-relevant patent applications was observed after the global economic crisis of 2008/2009, green patent applications actually increased. Possible cuts in the R&D budgets of some companies in the aftermath of the crisis apparently did not come at the expense of climate-relevant innovations.
As part of the analysis of patent applications relevant to climate protection, this study also examined technological development trends among companies. For this purpose, the identified green patents were assigned to six technology fields using a keyword search. The result confirms the great importance of climate-friendly innovations in the field of renewable energies, which account for 29 percent of all climate-relevant patents. Almost a fifth of the registrations each belong to the technology fields of efficiency/heat and environment. Innovations in the area of hydrogen and the circular economy account for just over 10 percent of green patent applications. E-mobility innovations account for 6 percent of climate protection patents.
