Placing China’s Green Technology Innovation in a Context

Abstract

Considering that green technology innovation is trending worldwide, whereby China’s stance towards issues environmental is frequently contested, this paper offers an insight into the scale and scope of green technology innovation in China today. By conducting a quantitative analysis of data on key green-technology investment statistics collected from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and China’s National Statistical Bureau, the findings of this paper suggest that China’s green technology innovation activities have increased dramatically in terms of (i) green patent applications and grants, (ii) propensity to engage in international collaboration, (iii) diffusion of environment-related technologies, and (iv) increasing government spending on research and development (R&D), especially in terms of personnel/talent development. This notwithstanding, the data demonstrates that a gap exists between China and other countries in per capita comparisons of performance and progress attained. This suggests that a great potential exists for China to improve, whereby the prospect of improving China’s performance is a function of increased investment and strengthened international collaboration.