According to the data released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the five countries most prepared to use and adopt technologies that are essential to the green tech transition are the United States, Sweden, Singapore, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
In contrast, at the bottom of the ranking of 166 countries based on their level of preparedness were Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and South Sudan.
UNCTAD researchers used five indicators to assess countries worldwide: ICT, skills, industry, research and development, and finance.
Notably, the US ranked in 2nd place for R&D and finance, 11th place for ICT, 16th place for industry and 18th place for skills.
Most top suppliers of frontier technologies are also firms based from the United States, exhibiting dominance for knowledge creation with about 30% of global publications and almost 70% of patents.
The markets of green technologies have been expanding at unequal rates throughout the world. One example is the exports of green technologies related to renewables and electric vehicles where in between 2018 and 2021, developed economies including US more than doubled, $60 billion to $156 billion, while developing countries’ exports grew by about 32% only, from $57 billion to $75 billion.
As a clear observation of the results shows, there’s a clear divide between high- and low-income countries. To be specific, Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa are the least ready to harness frontier technologies, which puts them at the most risk of missing out on current technological opportunities.
In August 2022, the US signed into law one of the major climate legislation in the country’s history, set to boost the country’s green tech industry. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the most significant climate action yet to have followed from the Paris Agreement of 2015, entailing tax breaks and subsidies worth over $350 billion for firms producing electric vehicles, batteries and renewable energy and amounts to a new industrial strategy.
Additionally, EY stated that there are three action areas to focus on when promoting green growth: guidelines and frameworks, technological innovation and responsible technology usage. By bringing together the business and public sectors as well as academic and government institutions, it will be more beneficial to co-create sustainable benefits enabled by technology.
Generally speaking, both demonstrating sufficient preparedness and assuming a leadership role in green tech will enable the growth of an ecosystem, which is essential for addressing the demands of the ever-evolving digital era sustainably.