Читать книгу EIB Investment Report 2020/2021 - Группа авторов - Страница 8

Digital technologies will be critical to the climate transition, and innovation at the intersection of digitalisation and decarbonisation will be paramount. Examples of enabling digital technologies include smart urban mobility and smart grids, precision agriculture, sustainable supply chains and environmental monitoring. The growth of teleworking during the pandemic illustrates how economic processes and products can increasingly be dematerialised. Innovation that uses digital technologies to achieve greener processes is of particular strategic importance for both future sustainability and competitiveness.

Europe is a global leader in green innovation, and even more so in innovation that is both green and digital – despite the United States’ leadership in most digital domains. According to the most recent data, Europe registered 50% more patents in green technologies than the United States, with Japan and China further behind. Moreover, Europe registered 76% more patents that combined both green and digital technologies than the United States, and four times more than China. Likewise, while the top global companies for digital innovation are largely American – with potential challengers from China – the top innovators for green technologies and technologies that combine green and digital elements tend to be European companies, with Japan in second place.

European firms lead the United States for green investment and digital adoption by green firms. Compared to the United States, European firms are less likely to have adopted digital technologies, but are more likely to invest in measures for mitigating or adapting to climate change. The share of firms that make green investments and are also digital adopters is also marginally higher in Europe (32% vs. 28% for the United States).

At the intersection of green and digital technologies, leading early in innovation may create a winner-takes-all effect. The development of green technology still offers great opportunities. Firms that have innovated in this sphere see the climate transition as leading to more dynamic markets, with more competitors entering, but not necessarily with a loss of competitive advantage for themselves. In addition, green-digital innovators are more likely to enjoy a wider, more global playing field. Such potentially large markets for green and digital innovations offer enormous possible rewards, perhaps leading to winner-takes-all dynamics for Europe.

However, Europe’s leadership in green-digital innovation could easily be lost. When looking at how much patents are cited by other innovators, Europe’s green-digital patent portfolio has a higher impact than all other regions. However, this impact per patent is still higher in the United States. Europe’s relative weakness in general digital innovation and its dependence on digital innovations from elsewhere could potentially undermine its position. Nevertheless, one of the key strengths of Europe lies in the transport sector. There, Europe leads not only in green and green-digital innovation, but also in digital innovation overall.