Toronto: Canada has jumped to fourth place globally in the 2017 Global Cleantech Innovation Index (GCII), in a report released in early June by Cleantech Group and global conservation organization WWF.
Canada scored first for funding available and second for early entrepreneurship, to improve three spots from the previous index in 2014.
For cleantech-specific drivers, Canada scores high for the number of cleantech funds, but there are only a few cleantech organizations and clusters. The country is a joint top-scorer for the amount of venture capital investment, together with three other countries in the index, while also having many companies in the Global Cleantech 100. Late-stage investment is well established in Canada, with the country ranking high for public cleantech companies and merger and acquisition activity, leading to a strong score for evidence of commercialized cleantech.
Globally, the Nordic region has the strongest cleantech start-up creation leadership for the first time. The region provides the best conditions today for clean technology start-up creation according to the third edition of the Global Cleantech Innovation Index.
The top three positions are held by Denmark, Finland and Sweden. All three appear to be gearing up for additional growth with increases in the numbers and amount of cleantech funds. The lowest scoring Nordic country is Norway. There are challenges for Norway, but it is also the country with highest cleantech R&D budgets in 2013-15. The world would invest roughly four times more in cleantech R&D if it adopted the same level of cleantech R&D per GDP as Norway.
Poland has the biggest change from the 2014 Index, rising 13 places to 24th. This is mainly due to three notable increases in cleantech-specific drivers. Poland's public cleantech R&D expenditure now sits at the global average, having been in last place three years ago. The country has also improved as a more attractive destination for renewable energy investments than before and moved up 16 places in measurement of cleantech patent filings.
The report received support from partners United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Asian Development Bank (ADB), The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth and the Swedish Energy Agency.
The study covers 40 countries, including all of the G20. The index demonstrates that countries get ahead if they are:
• Able to adapt to the growing demand for renewable energy (at home and abroad);
• Connecting start-ups with multiple channels (e.g. multinational corporates, public procurement) to increase their success rates; and
- Increasing international engagement to spur widespread adoption of clean technologies.
The GCII identifies three country archetypes in the cleantech innovation landscape: the Top Innovation Ecosystem Creators, Start-Up Generators and the Strong Commercializers. All three classes score well across the board, with the top innovation ecosystem creators doing particularly well in both general and cleantech-specific drivers in the 2013-2016 period by providing the underlying parameters, incentives, and necessary support for a thriving cleantech innovation ecosystem. The cleantech start-up generators score exceptionally well when it comes to producing patents for new cleantech innovations and venture capital to finance new business. The cleantech commercializers are well above average on market sophistication, size and finance to scale emerging cleantech innovations and create jobs. They have very high cleantech innovation conversion rates, i.e. are efficient in turning inputs to innovation into outputs in the economy.
The report is available at http://bit.ly/2s2bGGe. For more information on a particular country's cleantech innovation profile check the GCII program micro-site at www.i3connect.com/gcii.