Summary:

According to Southeast Asia’s Green Economy 2024 report[1], this region is the 4^th largest energy consumer in the world, with greenhouse gas emissions projected to continue rising. To accelerate the transition to a green economy, environmental-related technologies are of particular significance.

Green innovation involves not only technological development but also widespread deployment, particularly in markets vulnerable to climate change. Using patent application data from the PATSTAT database, we analysed the diffusion of green technologies in ASEAN.

Between 2001 and 2021, over 22,000 high-quality patent family[2] applications were filed within the ASEAN market. The prevalence of patents in environmental management (e.g. pollution abatement, climate change mitigation technologies (CCMT) for production processes and energy generation & efficiency underscores ASEAN’s dedication to reducing adverse human health impacts and promoting sustainable industrial production.

Notably, patenting activities are predominantly concentrated in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. As for other ASEAN economies, inadequate intellectual property (IP) protection and language barriers are potentially major impediments to protecting green technologies developed either domestically or internationally.

To facilitate the market diffusion of green technology across the ASEAN, strengthening IP laws and enforcement is a key policy priority. Additionally, implementing policies such as stringent emission standards can stimulate market demand for decarbonisation technologies. These are essential and pragmatic steps towards ASEAN’s sustainability goals.

Highlights:

• Green technology, such as environmental management and CCMT for production processes, are essential for greening the ASEAN economy.
• Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines are key destination markets within ASEAN for green technology deployment.
• Improving market protections in ASEAN is an important means to encourage the transfer of green technologies from countries with more advanced innovation capabilities.

Article & Graphic By YAN, Bowen

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[1] Southeast Asia’s Green Economy 2024 Report. (2024, June 10). Retrieved from https://www.bain.com/insights/southeast-asias-green-economy-2024

[2] A patent family is a set of equivalent patent applications filed at various patent offices corresponding to a single invention. High-quality patent families are inventions with more than two patent applications, representing a wide geographical breadth for which market protection of the invention is sought.