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World IP Day 2020: Green Innovation Surge Needed to Address Climate Change, New WIPO Figures Show

24-Apr-2020 | Source : WIPO | Visits : 2262

GENEVA - Innovation in environmentally friendly technologies as measured by international patent applications barely rose in 2019, according to new World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) figures released for World Intellectual Property Day 2020, prompting a call from WIPO Director General Francis Gurry for a green tech surge to fight climate change, a press release posted by WIPO stated.

Marking the April 26, 2020, "World IP Day 2020: Innovate for a Green Future," WIPO analyzed international patent filings via its Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in four categories of green energy technologies. These covered:

alternative energy production, notably renewable energy technologies;
energy conservation technologies;
green transportation; and
nuclear power generation.

The data are based on the WIPO International Patent Classification (IPC) Green Inventory, which tracks patents related to green energy innovation.

Among the findings: PCT applications – one measure of innovative activity – containing at least one IPC green energy code, grew to 16,940 applications in 2019, a 1.3 percent increase from 2018 (Annex PDF,  Annex). This lags a peak of 17,880 in 2016 and represents just over 6% of the total number of PCT applications filed in 2019.

“Climate change has far-reaching effects for all of us and innovation in green tech sectors will be key to successfully addressing this global challenge. Policymakers, businesses, academic institutions, inventors around the world: Let’s all work together to create a green-tech innovation surge that meets the requirements of our times.” - WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.

 
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