Impacts of low-carbon innovation and its heterogeneous components on CO2 emissions

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the impact of low-carbon innovation on CO2 emissions. Using patent statistics, we measured low-carbon innovations for 15 major economies during the period of 1992-2012. Then, we classified low-carbon technology into clean and gray technology according to the patent classification system. Following the empirical Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework, we explored the effects of low-carbon innovation and its components on CO2 emissions. We did not find any evidence of significant influence of low-carbon innovation. Through further estimations, a significantly negative effect of clean innovation was found while the effect of gray innovation is not clear. Heterogeneous impacts within low-carbon technology provide an explanation for the insignificant impact of low-carbon innovation.