Technological innovation and green transition: where does Belgium stand?

Providing technology solutions to help meet targets for energy efficiency, use of renewable energy sources and, more generally, reducing greenhouse gas emissions requires early technological progress in line with these ambitions.

Are current development projects sufficient to meet these expectations? At very least, they require constant research efforts in multiple domains. This article looks into them through an analysis of patented innovations in the field of climate change mitigation technologies (CCMTs).

It is based on patent data for these technology fields to throw some light into inventive activity in CCMTs from a global, European and Belgian perspective. How has this innovative activity evolved over time? Which technological fields are the most involved? Which companies and institutions are the most active in these key technologies to tackle the climate emergency? Clearly, their wide-scale deployment in the form of new low-carbon products and infrastructures is essential to achieve the environmental transition needed.