Green Tech Innovations

Environmental innovations in the various industries are the key drivers for a sustainable, environmentally compatible and resource-efficient economy. Innovations play an equally important role when it comes to reaching the Austrian environmental goals. At the same time, they are crucial to strengthening Austria’s international competitive position.

Against this background, Economica – Institute of Economic Research – was instructed to perform a green-tech patent analysis of the Austrian economy to highlight the relative strengths and trends. The investigation focused on the following questions:

  • What position does Austria’s innovation performance have in European and international competition?
  • What are the future technologies and technology strength fields linked to green tech?
  • Are the European regions’ technology profiles sustainable?
  • In what areas is there strategic potential for cooperation and value-added-chain networks?

In summary, the report shows

  • that the innovation activities in the Austrian environmental technology sector have generally increased over the last decade.
  • that, across the EU, Austria is in leading position when it comes to innovations in the fields of electric mobility (first place) and energy efficiency (second place).
  • that, where the entire energy and mobility cluster is concerned, the Austrian patent performance is above the global average. These fields clearly belong to the Austrian economy’s strength Areas.