Innovation on the front line: New climate change report

Innovation policy represents a powerful toolbox for mitigating climate change, but to be effective it has to coherently target a range of issues including resource scarcity, demographic change, and rising global affluence.

This is the message of a new report --

-- produced by UNU-MERIT for DG Enterprise and Industry at the European Commission.

The first aim of climate policy is to prevent dangerous levels of global warming linked to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. In the EU, CO2 from energy sources accounts for over three quarters of all GHG emissions.

Our report identifies two paths for achieving mitigation benefits:
1.

of electrical power generation and electrification of the transport sector;
2.

of the economy through energy efficient products, including homes, and re-use and recycling of products and waste.

Pursuing these paths will require policy makers to exert pressure on carbon-based systems and to nurture alternatives.

Our report draws on the state-of-the-art in innovation studies and policy-led transitions before making

. According to this plan, EU innovation policy for climate change should:
1) be incorporated in a green growth and quality of life strategy;
2) rely on identified barriers to innovation;
3) prevent windfall gains and regulatory capture;
4) be guided by a dedicated agency;
5) rely on a mix of technology-specific and generic policies;
6) encourage significantly higher levels of public R&D support;
7) focus on getting innovations adopted;
8) improve policy coordination;
9) use strategic intelligence in the selection of innovation projects;
10) support a broad portfolio of options for climate mitigation;
11) ensure policy learning;
12) seek international policies to fund zero carbon energy in developing countries and discourage carbon emissions elsewhere

The report concludes that a continuous, coherent, forward-looking process of adaptive policymaking will be key to a successful energy transition. The further development of tools to analyse what capacities need to be built is therefore essential.

Authors: Anthony Arundel, Minna Kanerva and René Kemp (UNU-MERIT)

Countries

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom