# **2.2     The Diffusion of Technologies toward the Developing World**

It is also possible to rely on patent statistics to measure the flows of technologies across countries. In particular, the count of patent applications in a given country for technologies invented abroad is an indicator of the volume of imported technologies. Because international trade and FDI are major channels for the transmission of technology knowledge across countries, the inflow of intermediate goods or FDI is also a possible proxy.

Table 3 relies on these three indicators to measure the climate technologies imported in selected emerging economies. It shows seemingly limited flows except towards China which represents between 7 and 15% of the world imports of technologies, depending on the indicator used. But the figures are actually not that low. To begin with, they are much higher than the percentages given in the previous table dealing with innovation. Moreover, they are more or less in line with each country’s economy size as measured by the GDP. Two exceptions are Russia and India which account for 3.3% and 4.9% of the world GDP whereas, depending in the indicators used, the size of inward transfers represents between 1.3 and 2.2% for the former and about 1.5% for the latter.

All in all, contrary to innovation, emerging economies appear to participate, albeit to varying degrees, in the global exchange of climate-friendly technologies, simply because they are key actors of the economic globalization. Note that the diffusion of climate-mitigation patented technologies is higher than that of non-green ones, but international trade is lower (in Table 3, see statistics in parentheses). This probably reflects different time horizons: international trade is driven by the current demand for green technologies, which is quite low in developing countries where environmental and climate policies are less advanced. Patenting is driven by the demand which is expected in the next 20 years. The figures suggest that patent holders anticipate a significant demand increase in the future.

In contrast, least-developed countries have very limited access to foreign green technologies as they are mostly connected to the global economy through raw material markets.

**Table 3: Low-carbon patent inflows, import of capital goods, foreign direct investments, economy size in selected emerging economies as a share of world total**

|Country|Patent inward<br>flows<sup>a</sup>|Import of low-<br>carbon equipment<sup>b</sup>|FD inward FDI<br>links<sup>c</sup>|Economy size<br>(2009 GDP)|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|China|15.5%<br>(12.2%)|8.3%<br>(15.3%)|7.1%|11.1%|
|Mexico|2.2%<br>(1.6%)|1.7%<br>(3.0%)|2.5%|2.2%|
|Russia|1.3%<br>(0.9%)|1.4%<br>(1.8%)|2.2%|3.3%|
|South Africa|1.2%<br>(0.8%)|0.4%<br>(0.6%)|0.9%|0.7%|
|India|n.a.<br>(n.a.)|1.5%<br>(1.5%)|1.6%|4.9%|
|Brazil|0.7%<br>(0.5%)|0.7%<br>(1.1%)|2.5%|2.9%|

Source: Glachant et al., 2013 based on PATSTAT, COMTRADE and ORBIS data. Notes: Results for all technologies and equipment good appears in parentheses.<sup>a</sup> Average of patent flows covering 23 technology classes, except agriculture and forestry (2007-2009).<sup>b</sup> Average of low-carbon equipment from 18 products/sectors: hydro, wind, solar photovoltaic and thermal, nuclear, energy storage, electric and hybrid vehicles, rail locomotives, cement, insulation, lighting, economizers, super-heaters, soot removers, gas recoverers (2007-2009).<sup>c</sup> Count of capital links between a source company owning at least one low-carbon patent and a foreign company in 2011.

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