How collaboration with G7 countries drives environmental technology innovation in ten Newly Industrializing Countries

The development and deployment of environmental technologies (ETs) is critical to avert further environmental destruction, to significantly reduce emissions and to halt climate change. Innovation in ETs is particularly pertinent in newly industrializing countries (NICs), since they will soon overtake developed countries in terms of aggregate greenhouse gas emissions, but also have the economic strength required to scale up ETs rapidly. Even though NICs now supply a substantial share of low-carbon technologies, multilateral climate change policies continue to focus narrowly on technology transfer rather than collaboration and co-invention. In addition, G7 countries have vocalized their intention to collaborate with developing countries to innovate and diffuse ETs, suggesting that collaboration can be a key driver of developing country innovations. Against this background, we conduct an empirical analysis of ten NICs from 1990 to 2017 and demonstrate that technological collaboration with G7 countries significantly increases ET innovation in NICs.