Graph of the Day: Good Climate Change Policy Spurs Cleantech Innovations
Annex 1 countries which ratified the Kyoto Protocol had a greater share of climate-related inventions, post-Kyoto than the USA & Australia.Environmental Economics have posted some graphs taken from a new study examining technology transfer and climate change. The gist of it is, that countries that ratified the Kyoto Protocol had greater clean tech innovation in the years after signing than those who did not:It’s important to note that, as the original post author points out,
...the paper doesn't show direct causality. There are hints and some convincing stories to tell, but, as any Wikipedia reader by now knows, statistical correlation doesn't imply causality. More importantly, we may have an entirely different story altogether. It could conceivably be the case that Annex I Kyoto ratifiers (i.e. Europe & Japan) outpaced the United States and Australia in the growth of total patents over these last few years for reasons completely unrelated to Kyoto.
Download the original report: Invention and Transfer of Climate Change Mitigation Technologies on a Global Scale: A Study Drawing on Patent Data
via: Environmental EconomicsGlobal Climate Change PolicyAl Gore Tells Senate Committee That We Have Arrived at a Moment of Decision Regarding Climate Change‘The Time For Denial & Delay is Over’: US Special Envoy for Climate ChangeIt’s a Long Road to Copenhagen: Here’s What Obama Needs to Do So That The US Leads the World on Climate Change
