Team

Matthieu Glachant, MINES ParisTech

Yann Ménière, MINES ParisTech

Antoine Dechezleprêtre,  London School of Economics

Arnaud de la Tour, MINES ParisTech

News

The paper "Invention and Transfer of Climate Change Mitigation Technologies: a global analysis" has been published in the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy.

Arnaud de la Tour, Matthieu Glachant, and Yann Ménière were awarded the second academic prize on October 2011 from the international association for the protection of intellectual property (AIPPI) for their paper Innovation and international technology transfer: The case of the Chinese photovoltaic industry'

Presentation

Achieving climate change stabilisation is only feasible with the creation and the diffusion of new technologies. In this programme of economic research, we develop quantitative analyses, case studies, and theoretical economic models to assess the importance of innovation and technology transfer and explore policy solutions that could foster innovation and the international diffusion of inventions. The team includes researchers from the Cerna (MINES ParisTech) and the London School of Economics.

You can find below the presentation of selected research results on:

• innovation and technology transfer in 13 classes of climate-friendly technologies on a global scale using patent patent data
• technology diffusion in the photovoltaic industry
• the role of the Clean Development Mechanism in transferring technologies in developing countrie
• other works in progress

Invention and Transfer of Climate Change Mitigation Technologies: a global analysis

Results have been published in January 2011 in the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy and is available here. The work has been financed by AFD and carried out by the Cerna in cooperation with Nick Johnstone and Ivan Hascic from the OECD. It provides an in-depth analysis of the geographic distribution of 13 classes of climate mitigation inventions since 1978 and their international diffusion on a global scale. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative work with this comprehensive geographical scope.

Note that a previous version have circulated under the title "Invention and Transfer of Climate Change Mitigation Technologies on a Global Scale: A Study Drawing on Patent Data". Technical notes with detailed statistics for each class of technologyare also available: wind, solar, geothermal, ocean energy, biomass, hydropower, waste-to-energy, methanedestruction, climate-friendly cement, energy conservation in buildings, motor vehicules fuel injection, energy efficient lighting and carbon capture.

Innovation and international technology transfer: The case of the Chinese photovoltaic industry

Photovoltaic (PV) technology is considered as one of the major renewable energy technologies to be used in the future world energy portfolio. The purpose of the study is to analyse how China became in a few years the world leader in PV cells and panels production. In particular, we examine how China has acquired necessary production technologies.

Results were presented at the Climate Summit (COP 15) in Copenhaguen in 2009, and led to a publication in Energy Policy: de la Tour, A., Glachant, M., Ménière, Y., ·Innovation and international technology transfer: The case of the Chinese photovoltaic industry. We were awarded the second academic prize on October 2011 from the international association for the protection of intellectual property (AIPPI) for this work.

We have also written a related report on the economics of the Concentrated Power industry: de la Tour, A., Glachant, M., Ménière, Y., 2010.·Economic analysis of the CSP industry

Technology Transfer and the Clean Development Mechanism

We also investigate how the Clean Development Mechanism can promote the transfer of climate-friendly technologies to developing countries. Here are a list of publications:

• Matthieu Glachant and Yann Ménière (2006) "Economie industrielle des MDP/MOC: les cas de Pannonpower et Indocement", report for the French environmental agency ADEME. This report presents two case studies of CDM/JI projects in Hungary and Indonesia (in French).
• Antoine Dechezleprêtre, Matthieu Glachant and Yann Ménière (2008) "The Clean Development Mechanism and the international diffusion of technologies: an empirical study", 36(4), Energy Policy, pp 1273-1283. This paper exploits a database of 644 CDM projects. It yields descriptive statistics on technology transfers in these projects. We also develop econometric regressions to identify the underlying drivers.
• Antoine Dechezleprêtre, Matthieu Glachant and Yann Ménière (2008) "Technology transfer by CDM projects: A comparison of Brazil, China, India and Mexico" Energy Policy, 37(2), pp 703-711. This is a companion paper of the previous one which use the same data and models to compare Brazil, China, India and Mexico.
• Matthieu Glachant and Yann Ménière (2011) "Project Mechanisms and Technology Diffusion in Climate Policy", Environmental and Resource Economics. We develop a theoretical model to analyze key properties of technology diffusion processes in CDM projects. We also derive policy implications for the design of international emissions trading schemes.

Working papers

Dechezleprêtre, A., Glachant, M., Ménière, Y,. What Drives the International Transfer of Climate Change MitigationTechnologies? Empirical Evidence from Patent Data

Dechezleprêtre, A., Glachant, M., Does foreign environmental policy influence domestic innovation? Evidence from the wind industry, 2011,