-- Press Releases September 2010 - Pioneering study examines the role of patents in combating climate change - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) --

-- Press Releases September 2010 - Pioneering study examines the role of patents in combating climate change - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) --

Six countries - Japan, the United States, Germany, Republic of Korea, France and the United Kingdom - are the source of almost 80 percent of all innovations developed worldwide in the field of clean energy technologies (CETs). This is one of the key findings of a patent-based study, jointly conducted by the European Patent Office (EPO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), on the emergence and distribution of these technologies across the globe and their impact on climate change.

Some 400,000 patent documents identified from a pool of 60 million patents at the international level form the basis of the study, "Patents and clean energy: bridging the gap between evidence and policy" which examines the effect of patents on the worldwide transfer of CETs, such as solar photovoltaic (PV), geothermal, wind, and carbon capture. The study also contains the first-ever survey on licensing, which provides insights into the licensing practices of technology holders in this area.

The main objective of the study is to provide facts in an area where there has previously been very little empirical data.