"If you don't count China, the progress of innovation in clean energy worldwide is zero."
"If you remove China's data, you will find that in recent years, innovation in the global clean energy field has stagnated, even slowed down."
After conducting an independent analysis of data from the European Patent Office, Ember, a global energy research institution, analyst Biqing Yang (translated name) told The New York Times with this summary.
The New York Times reported on the 14th that this U.S. media outlet obtained the most comprehensive data on global competitive patent application trends from the European Patent Office. It showed that in 2000, Chinese applicants submitted only 18 clean energy patents with international competitiveness; by 2022, this number had exceeded 5,000.
The report pointed out that over two decades, China not only achieved a leap in the number of patents, but also continuously provided a large number of innovative designs for future energy systems such as solar power, wind power, batteries, and electric vehicles. The explosive growth of high-quality research results and patent applications has jointly established China's leading position in the global clean energy industry.
Yann Ménière, Chief Economist at the European Patent Office, explained to the U.S. media that the core indicator for measuring patent quality lies in the cost invested by companies or institutions to protect their patents, such as how many countries they have applied to.
The agency defines "high-quality patents" as those that have been applied for in two or more countries. The logic behind this is: if a company is willing to spend effort and cost to layout patents in multiple markets, it is essentially to protect its invention globally, which also indirectly proves the actual value of the technology.
"This may sound simple... but just based on this, we can clearly see how China has transformed from a 'follower' to an 'innovator'," Ménière said.
According to this standard, in the most recent year with complete data records, 2022, the number of high-quality clean energy patents applied for by China was more than twice that of the United States, and the proportion of high-quality patents is still steadily increasing.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1840506607551492/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.