The EU is ahead of its global peers in climate neutral technology innovation, while more effort is needed to commercialise these green innovations and finance the associated scale-ups, a JRC report shows.
The annual assessment of key climate-neutral energy technologies finds the EU is strong in high-value patents, public R&D investment, and the number of innovating companies. The technologies in which the EU shows greatest strength are wind (rotors), heat pumps, offshore operations (for installation of renewables), and heating and cooling networks.
The results are published in the report European Climate Neutral Industry Competitiveness Scoreboard – Annual Report 2022.
It shows that EU production bounced back after the pandemic, but growing demand was increasingly met with imports. Therefore, the EU trade balance in many strategic net-zero technologies deteriorated. This indicates that EU demand for climate- neutral solutions is growing to the extent that domestic manufacturing is not able to satisfy it, and an increasing share is met with imports.
The study assesses 28 key climate-neutral energy technologies, against 10 competitiveness indicators: public R&D investment, early and late-stage venture capital investment, patent activity, number of innovating companies, employment, production, turnover, imports & exports, and trade balance.
Climate-neutral tech solutions: EU’s strong in innovation, but lags in commercialisation (europa.eu)