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Theme 5

Net Zero Innovation

Policy questions and key messages

  1. Is the UK on track to meet its national carbon reduction targets?
  2. How does the UK’s investment in low-carbon and renewable energy technology research and development (R&D) stand in comparison to other countries?
  3. How does the UK’s innovation performance in low-carbon and renewable energy technology compare to other countries?

The UK has decoupled GDP growth from greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, achieving its legally binding targets to date:

  • While the UK’s GDP nearly doubled between 1990 and 2023, the country achieved a 52% reduction in territorial GHG emissions in this period (i.e. emissions that occur within the UK borders and which are used to track national progress towards international targets).
  • The UK has now achieved all three of its previous carbon budgets (i.e. legally binding 5-year greenhouse gas emissions cap set by the government under the Climate Change Act), with more than half of the emissions reductions over the first three carbon budgets being from energy supply sectors.
  • Looking ahead, emissions reductions for the next three carbon budgets are expected to come from other sectors, particularly transport, buildings and agriculture.

Based on data from the International Energy Agency, the UK had the fourth-highest public research, development and demonstration (RD&D) expenditure on low-carbon renewable energy technologies between 2013 and 2023, below the USA, France and Japan:

  • At US$1.8 billion, the UK’s public RD&D budget in low-carbon and renewable energy technologies in 2023 was lower than Japan (US$2.9 billion), France (US$4 billion) and the USA (US$10.3 billion) but higher than Germany (US$1.5 billion) and Canada (US$1.4 billion).
  • Among low-carbon technologies, the highest public R&D expenditure in the UK in 2023 was on nuclear power technologies, followed by energy efficiency and renewables.

The UK was among the top 10 economies in the world by number of environment-related patent applications between 2010 and 2021:

  • The UK ranked seventh in the world by number of environment-related patent applications filed between 2010 and 2021, behind Japan, the USA, Korea, China, Germany and France but ahead of Taiwan, Canada and Italy.
  • In terms of patent technology specialisation, between 2001 and 2021 the UK demonstrated high specialisation in offshore wind power, greener buildings, new and advanced nuclear power, greener vehicles and carbon capture, usage and storage.

UK annual territorial greenhouse-gas emissions by source sector

Public R&D spending on low-carbon and renewable energy technologies – total budgets

  • The UK was consistently among the top six countries with the highest public R&D expenditure on low-carbon renewable energy technologies between 2013 and 2023 in the data set compiled by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
  • The IEA estimates that in 2023 the UK’s public R&D budget in low-carbon and renewable energy technologies was US$1.8 billion, lower than Japan (US$2.9 billion), France (US$4 billion) and the USA (US$10.3 billion) but higher than Germany (US$1.5 billion) and Canada (US$1.4 billion).[1]
  • Technologies in the IEA R&D expenditure analysis include: energy efficiency; renewable energy sources; nuclear fission and fusion; hydrogen and fuel cells; other power and storage technologies; and other cross-cutting technologies or research.

[1]  Note: Prices are in 2023 US$ and purchasing power parity (PPP). Source: IEA (2024). IEA Energy Technology RD&D Budgets – October 2024.

Public R&D spending on low-carbon and renewable energy technologies – by technology

  • Based on data from the IEA, the research area that received the highest public RD&D expenditure in the UK in 2023 was nuclear power technologies. This was followed by energy efficiency, renewables, other cross-cutting technologies, hydrogen and fuel cells and other power and storage technologies.
  • Different specialisations can be seen among top public RD&D spenders, based on which research categories observed the highest expenditure:
    • the USA: other cross-cutting technologies (including energy system analysis and basic energy research that cannot be allocated to a specific category)
    • Germany: hydrogen and fuel cells
    • France and Japan: nuclear power technologies
    • Canada: energy efficiency.

Innovation in environment-related technologies

  • The UK ranked seventh in the OECD database by the total number of environment-related patent applications between 2010 and 2021, behind Japan, the USA, Korea, China, Germany and France but ahead of Taiwan, Canada and Italy.[1]
  • Technologies covered under the OECD’s “environment-related technologies” group include:
    • environmental management
    • climate-change-mitigation technologies related to energy generation, transmission and distribution
    • the capture, storage, sequestration or disposal of greenhouse gases
    • climate-change mitigation for transport
    • climate-change mitigation for buildings
    • waste-water treatment and waste management
    • climate-change mitigation in the production or processing of goods
    • climate-change mitigation in information and communication technologies.

[1] Note: Consistent with other patent statistics provided in the OECD Data Explorer, only published applications for “patents of invention” are considered (i.e. excluding utility models, petty patents, etc.). The statistics presented here are based on the concept of a patent family, which is defined as all patent applications protecting the same “priority” (as defined by the Paris Convention), also referred to as “simple patent family”. The patent family concept is applied to all statistics presented here, including counts of patent families by inventor country (as a measure of technology development) and by jurisdictions where patent protection for these inventions has been sought (as a measure of technology diffusion).The relevant patent documents are identified using search strategies for environment-related technologies.

Specialisation ranking matrix per technology area for top 10 patenting countries worldwide

  • The Relative Specialisation Index (RSI) is defined as a country’s share of patent families in a particular field of technology as a fraction of that country’s share of patent families in all fields of technology.[1]
  • Using RSI, Chart 5.5. shows the relative specialisation for the technology areas included in the UK’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution (2020) for the top 10 patenting countries worldwide between 2001 and 2021.[2]
  • The UK presents the highest specialisation in both offshore wind power and greener buildings.
  • The country has also consistently been among the most specialised nations in terms of RSI for new and advanced nuclear power, greener vehicles and carbon capture, and usage and storage, with slightly lower specialisation in flood and coastal defence technologies and low-carbon hydrogen power.

[1] Note: For a full description of the UK IPO methodological approach on how the RSI is calculated, please refer to Appendix B in the following source: UK IPO (2024). The race to net zero: Tracking the green industrial revolution through IP. Source: [2] UK GOV (2020). The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.

Top 10 owners of green technology international patent families (IPFs) invented in the UK

  • To identify patents related to green technologies, the UK IPO established a methodology using a combination of full-text keyword searching, International Patent Classifications (IPC) and Cooperative Patent Classifications (CPC).
  • Patents classified as green technologies include any international patent families (those where at least two different filing authorities are present in a patent family) related to renewable energy sources, clean energy generation, energy management, energy storage and water treatment.[1]
  • Chart 5.6. shows the top 10 owners of green technology international patent families (IPFs) invented in the UK (i.e. where at least one inventor has a UK address).
  • GE has the highest number of green-technology IPFs invented in the UK, at 310. These patent families account for less than 1% of GE’s total portfolio.
  • Intelligent Energy has a smaller number of IPFs overall, but green technology forms a much higher percentage of its total portfolio (roughly 32%), suggesting this company is more focused on green technology than GE.

[1] Note: For a full description of the UK IPO methodological approach, please refer to Appendix A in the following source: UK IPO (2024). The race to net zero: Tracking the green industrial revolution through IP.