Global Green Technologies – Economics and Innovation

**123**

employment.

**Chapter 8**

**Abstract**

**1. Overview**

Circular Economy: The Strategies

Economics needs to change from being a linear theory into being circular because of the need to be more scientific due to the use of both quantitative and qualitative, which reflects science in theory and practice. The application of circular economics to businesses, both in existing and new entrepreneurship, provides a

**Keywords:** climate, qualitative, quantitative, economics, science, theory, practice

Europe and the whole world are facing several pressing issues concerning climate change, the environment, society and the economy, which are crucial to the quality of life. The **Circular Economy** (CE) is the answer to some of the main challenges of our time. It helps today to preserve resources that are increasingly scarce and subject to greater than ever, environmental pressure. It boosts Europe's economy and competitiveness, by generating new business opportunities as well as innovative and more efficient ways of producing and consuming. It brings local jobs and creates opportunities for social integration and cohesion. And even finds an answer to the terror of the fanatics: provide desperate people with viable, safe and

For these reasons, in 2013 the European Commission launched a new and comprehensive research and innovation program called Horizon 2020 which will have to introduce a more focused approach to concrete solutions to climate change and environmental challenges. The European Union Circular Economy is a long-awaited package that will play a key role in supporting this transition to the future, today, by providing a clear message to the industry and society on the pathway forward. The package drives investments and creates a level playing field, removing obstacles stemming from European legislation, deepening the single market, and providing favorable conditions for innovation. Experts agree that it is of particular importance that this program is not only convincing from the point of view of research, but that it is also relevant in terms of contribution to the achievement of the objectives of the European Union, including prosperity, quality of life, sustainability, growth and

to Global Business Economics

*Woodrow W. Clark II and Danilo Bonato*

construct way to address, change and reverse climate problems.

strong future for their families and children.

**2. The European Union: Horizon 2020**

#### **Chapter 8**

## Circular Economy: The Strategies to Global Business Economics

*Woodrow W. Clark II and Danilo Bonato*

#### **Abstract**

Economics needs to change from being a linear theory into being circular because of the need to be more scientific due to the use of both quantitative and qualitative, which reflects science in theory and practice. The application of circular economics to businesses, both in existing and new entrepreneurship, provides a construct way to address, change and reverse climate problems.

**Keywords:** climate, qualitative, quantitative, economics, science, theory, practice

#### **1. Overview**

Europe and the whole world are facing several pressing issues concerning climate change, the environment, society and the economy, which are crucial to the quality of life. The **Circular Economy** (CE) is the answer to some of the main challenges of our time. It helps today to preserve resources that are increasingly scarce and subject to greater than ever, environmental pressure. It boosts Europe's economy and competitiveness, by generating new business opportunities as well as innovative and more efficient ways of producing and consuming. It brings local jobs and creates opportunities for social integration and cohesion. And even finds an answer to the terror of the fanatics: provide desperate people with viable, safe and strong future for their families and children.

#### **2. The European Union: Horizon 2020**

For these reasons, in 2013 the European Commission launched a new and comprehensive research and innovation program called Horizon 2020 which will have to introduce a more focused approach to concrete solutions to climate change and environmental challenges. The European Union Circular Economy is a long-awaited package that will play a key role in supporting this transition to the future, today, by providing a clear message to the industry and society on the pathway forward. The package drives investments and creates a level playing field, removing obstacles stemming from European legislation, deepening the single market, and providing favorable conditions for innovation. Experts agree that it is of particular importance that this program is not only convincing from the point of view of research, but that it is also relevant in terms of contribution to the achievement of the objectives of the European Union, including prosperity, quality of life, sustainability, growth and employment.

**Figure 1.** *Danilo Bonato.*

One of the main objectives of Horizon 2020 is to position Europe as leader in the development of a "circular" and "green" economy, based on the concept of sustainability: at this particular moment in time the EU must strengthen its international competitiveness through the productivity of resources and the improvement of the capacity to provide the world with low environmental impact technologies and services, oriented towards an efficient use of resources.

This is therefore an epochal change that must move us away from the conventional neo-classical economy of Adam Smith as Clark and Fast documented and established in their first book, Qualitative Economics [1, 2] that includes other aspects in our development models as well as the "market".

The chart below shows how the Circular Economy works, and has been working in different countries and communities already (**Figure 1**).

The European Union (and the world) is facing a series of systemic crises affecting the environment, natural resources, economic and social aspects, with very critical implications such as population growth, conflicts and wars. To address these systemic challenges successfully, we need eco-innovative solutions, capable of transforming economies and making the lifestyle of European citizens more sustainable as Clark and Cook documented in their book on The Green Industrial Revolution (English 2015 and Mandarin 2014) as well as others about the technological, science, public policy and economic solutions to climate change.

#### **3. China: green development**

The "disruptive green revolution" (GIR) as "green development" in China has already begun in Europe and is now penetrating China and other parts of Asia.

For example, on 16 July 2018, China and the EU signed a MOU on working together with Circular Economics. Then in late fall 2018, a report was done and released for China to plan and work in this area as a key part of the Chinese Plan for Green Development and a New Silk road starting from east coast of China [3] (**Figure 2**).

We need a solid systemic eco-innovation, inserted in a broader perspective that considers all the innovative solutions able to contribute to the development of the three fundamental "axes" of sustainability: economic, social and environmental.

**125**

*Circular Economy: The Strategies to Global Business Economics*

From this point of view, the circular economy is the most effective approach in terms of the model of development and has recently become the strategic reference areas for ALL the EU countries and also thanks to the commitment of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the Union European Union (Flemish Environment

Signed on 16 July 2018 as: "The signing of an agreement on Circular Economy (CE) by the world's two largest economies that could soon accelerate adoption of circular economy practices at a global scale, creating potential for a 'system shift' towards a low carbon, regenerative economy." The next step was for the a new analysis on CE by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, to be published in December 2019 that finds that a transition to a Circular Economy in China's cities could make goods and services more affordable for citizens, and reduce the impacts normally associated with middle class lifestyles, such as traffic congestion and air pollution.

The Report was released in December 2018 and done by Arup Corporation (as noted below from its Cover) who are located in the EU and a long-time involved science, technology, engineering and economics company for many regions, nations

One of the critical tasks of the Circular Economy package is the development of innovative product requirements under the Eco-design directive, such as durability and recyclability. In this respect, it is very likely that the Commission will adopt a proposal to differentiate fees by producers in Extended Producer Responsibility schemes according to the real end-of-life costs and recyclability of their products. As part of the regular reviews of BAT (Best Available Techniques), the circular economy package should also include guidance on best waste management and

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88617*

Minister Joke Schauvliege).

*Wikipedia: Shanghai, China.*

**Figure 2.**

**4. Ellen MacArthur Foundation report**

and cities around the world [4, 5] (**Figure 3**).

*Circular Economy: The Strategies to Global Business Economics DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88617*

**Figure 2.** *Wikipedia: Shanghai, China.*

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

One of the main objectives of Horizon 2020 is to position Europe as leader in the development of a "circular" and "green" economy, based on the concept of sustainability: at this particular moment in time the EU must strengthen its international competitiveness through the productivity of resources and the improvement of the capacity to provide the world with low environmental impact technologies and

This is therefore an epochal change that must move us away from the conventional neo-classical economy of Adam Smith as Clark and Fast documented and established in their first book, Qualitative Economics [1, 2] that includes other

The chart below shows how the Circular Economy works, and has been working

The European Union (and the world) is facing a series of systemic crises affecting the environment, natural resources, economic and social aspects, with very critical implications such as population growth, conflicts and wars. To address these systemic challenges successfully, we need eco-innovative solutions, capable of transforming economies and making the lifestyle of European citizens more sustainable as Clark and Cook documented in their book on The Green Industrial Revolution (English 2015 and Mandarin 2014) as well as others about the technological, science, public policy and economic solutions to

The "disruptive green revolution" (GIR) as "green development" in China has already begun in Europe and is now penetrating China and other parts of Asia.

with Circular Economics. Then in late fall 2018, a report was done and released for China to plan and work in this area as a key part of the Chinese Plan for Green Development and a New Silk road starting from east coast of China [3] (**Figure 2**). We need a solid systemic eco-innovation, inserted in a broader perspective that considers all the innovative solutions able to contribute to the development of the three fundamental "axes" of sustainability: economic, social and environmental.

For example, on 16 July 2018, China and the EU signed a MOU on working together

services, oriented towards an efficient use of resources.

aspects in our development models as well as the "market".

in different countries and communities already (**Figure 1**).

**124**

climate change.

**Figure 1.** *Danilo Bonato.*

**3. China: green development**

From this point of view, the circular economy is the most effective approach in terms of the model of development and has recently become the strategic reference areas for ALL the EU countries and also thanks to the commitment of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the Union European Union (Flemish Environment Minister Joke Schauvliege).

Signed on 16 July 2018 as: "The signing of an agreement on Circular Economy (CE) by the world's two largest economies that could soon accelerate adoption of circular economy practices at a global scale, creating potential for a 'system shift' towards a low carbon, regenerative economy." The next step was for the a new analysis on CE by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, to be published in December 2019 that finds that a transition to a Circular Economy in China's cities could make goods and services more affordable for citizens, and reduce the impacts normally associated with middle class lifestyles, such as traffic congestion and air pollution.

#### **4. Ellen MacArthur Foundation report**

The Report was released in December 2018 and done by Arup Corporation (as noted below from its Cover) who are located in the EU and a long-time involved science, technology, engineering and economics company for many regions, nations and cities around the world [4, 5] (**Figure 3**).

One of the critical tasks of the Circular Economy package is the development of innovative product requirements under the Eco-design directive, such as durability and recyclability. In this respect, it is very likely that the Commission will adopt a proposal to differentiate fees by producers in Extended Producer Responsibility schemes according to the real end-of-life costs and recyclability of their products.

As part of the regular reviews of BAT (Best Available Techniques), the circular economy package should also include guidance on best waste management and

**Figure 3.** *Copyright: Ellen MacArthur Foundation.*

resource efficiency practices for production processes in industrial sectors, improving the uptake of the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and the environmental technology verification system as well as methods to evaluate and make decisions on products (health, environment and nature ingredients and more) such as "earth accounting" has started to do within the circular economy paradigm (http://wwwearthaccounting.com).

What is critical now is that China sees the CE as part of its move into The Next Economics [6] due to Qualitative Economics (2008 and now 2019) playing a significant role in how economics works and should work (**Figure 4**).

The reference models underlying the circular economy stem from the collaboration between the industrial design strategist, William McDonough (Cradle to Cradle (C2C)) and the German chemist Michael Braungart, both collaborators of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

One of the key priorities for Europe in the circular economy is that of resource efficiency and waste reduction (Zero Waste Strategy). In this field several *stakeholders* are active, such as Remedia, the collective system of manufacturers of electrical

**127**

*Circular Economy: The Strategies to Global Business Economics*

and electronic equipment that is developing a long-term vision to fully exploit the potential of secondary raw materials and to increase the innovation capacity of the

**5. Economics must be both Qualitative and Quantitative**

There is also an absolute need to improve the awareness of European industry in terms of access to critical raw materials, thanks to a closer monitoring of the global markets of non-energy resources. Too many companies ignore the fact that their products are threatened by the risk of future, reliable and fair supply, of strategic

When economics is referred to as a science, it must act and perform as science which is both qualitative and quantitative. There are two critical factors to follow:

a.*Economic importance*: This analysis is obtained by evaluating the share of each material associated with macro industrial sectors at European level. These quotas are therefore related to the gross value added of the macro sectors compared to the GDP of the EU. The value obtained is then evaluated on the basis of the total EU GDP in order to define an index of global economic importance for a

b.*Supply risk*: The World governance indicator (Wgi) is used to measure this risk. This indicator takes into account a very wide variety of criteria, such as levels of responsibility, political stability, absence of violence, government effective-

Minerals and critical metals are essential for environmental technologies such as solar photovoltaics, wind power, lighting and for low-carbon electric vehicle

ness, quality of legislation, rule of law and control of corruption.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88617*

recycling sector in the EU [7].

*Ellen MacArthur Foundation plan.*

given material.

resources.

**Figure 4.**

*Circular Economy: The Strategies to Global Business Economics DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88617*

**Figure 4.** *Ellen MacArthur Foundation plan.*

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

resource efficiency practices for production processes in industrial sectors, improving the uptake of the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and the environmental technology verification system as well as methods to evaluate and make decisions on products (health, environment and nature ingredients and more) such as "earth accounting" has started to do within the circular economy

What is critical now is that China sees the CE as part of its move into The Next Economics [6] due to Qualitative Economics (2008 and now 2019) playing a signifi-

The reference models underlying the circular economy stem from the collaboration between the industrial design strategist, William McDonough (Cradle to Cradle (C2C)) and the German chemist Michael Braungart, both collaborators of the Ellen

One of the key priorities for Europe in the circular economy is that of resource efficiency and waste reduction (Zero Waste Strategy). In this field several *stakeholders* are active, such as Remedia, the collective system of manufacturers of electrical

paradigm (http://wwwearthaccounting.com).

*Copyright: Ellen MacArthur Foundation.*

cant role in how economics works and should work (**Figure 4**).

**126**

**Figure 3.**

MacArthur Foundation.

and electronic equipment that is developing a long-term vision to fully exploit the potential of secondary raw materials and to increase the innovation capacity of the recycling sector in the EU [7].

There is also an absolute need to improve the awareness of European industry in terms of access to critical raw materials, thanks to a closer monitoring of the global markets of non-energy resources. Too many companies ignore the fact that their products are threatened by the risk of future, reliable and fair supply, of strategic resources.

#### **5. Economics must be both Qualitative and Quantitative**

When economics is referred to as a science, it must act and perform as science which is both qualitative and quantitative. There are two critical factors to follow:


Minerals and critical metals are essential for environmental technologies such as solar photovoltaics, wind power, lighting and for low-carbon electric vehicle

industries. Interruptions in the supply chain in times of crisis can be dramatic from the environmental, social and economic point of view. This is the main reason why there is a need for a global framework in terms of access to raw materials, capable of overcoming the traditional neoclassical model of supply and demand.

While the science of chemistry is important, the issue is to be able to recycle and reuse the plastic that is made and used for bottles, packaging and more. Now, the plastic can be gathered from reusable products that provide a resource from which to make new products (**Figure 5**).

In a circular economy, buildings would be modular, durable, and flexible. The benefits of digitizing the built environment would go beyond improving energy efficiency and enhance productivity overall. Embracing a circular built environment would reshape both asset utilization and material management in the sector. Inhabitants would enjoy better indoor and outdoor air quality.

The qualitative leap can only be made if we know how to acquire in-depth knowledge about the availability of secondary raw materials. It is also necessary that the actors of the system (raw materials industry, end users, institutions, companies and consumers) collaborate closely to achieve common reuse and recycling targets along the entire production and distribution chain. In this way consumers will know exactly what they are buying and the impacts and potential for re-use and recycling of the products they have chosen.

Moreover, collection systems are still too expensive and inefficient which does not help industrial companies to abandon the traditional production systems based on the linear (flat economic) transformation of materials into products and their disposal once they are consumed. Therefore, the Commission is considering the possibility of introducing further simplifications to promote increased efficiency of collection systems through the circular economy paradigm. Hence by integrating these systems with the upstream industries that make use of recycled components and raw materials from products entering, the end of their life stage can be profitably met as well as protecting the environment (**Figure 6**).

**129**

materials.

**Figure 6.**

and must be improved.

**6. Conclusion as next steps**

*Copyright: Ellen MacArthur Foundation.*

*Circular Economy: The Strategies to Global Business Economics*

Many modern products, especially those of high-tech media and those that transit the web and social networks are truly global, from their creation to distribution and sales. Tools like Netflix, YouTube, Facebook and other forms of communication must be part of a circular economy model that directs towards the reuse and recycling of products in order to create new ones. The whole process can

Success will only be seen when we are able to achieve a series of improvements over access to and availability of raw materials, with sustainable resource management within a greener, more circular economy and global eco-innovations in technology both in commercial practices to meet the growing demand and ensure the needs in terms of raw material supply. This effort should also lead to changes in behavior that are more consistent with consumers' sustainable use of raw

The dynamics linked to the circular economy can thus be transformed into a solid pillar of the growth strategy of the European Union. The world of industry, in collaboration with governments, must work to address social environmental

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88617*

**Figure 5.** *Copyright: Ellen MacArthur Foundation.*

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

to make new products (**Figure 5**).

recycling of the products they have chosen.

industries. Interruptions in the supply chain in times of crisis can be dramatic from the environmental, social and economic point of view. This is the main reason why there is a need for a global framework in terms of access to raw materials, capable of

While the science of chemistry is important, the issue is to be able to recycle and reuse the plastic that is made and used for bottles, packaging and more. Now, the plastic can be gathered from reusable products that provide a resource from which

In a circular economy, buildings would be modular, durable, and flexible. The benefits of digitizing the built environment would go beyond improving energy efficiency and enhance productivity overall. Embracing a circular built environment would reshape both asset utilization and material management in the sector.

The qualitative leap can only be made if we know how to acquire in-depth knowledge about the availability of secondary raw materials. It is also necessary that the actors of the system (raw materials industry, end users, institutions, companies and consumers) collaborate closely to achieve common reuse and recycling targets along the entire production and distribution chain. In this way consumers will know exactly what they are buying and the impacts and potential for re-use and

Moreover, collection systems are still too expensive and inefficient which does not help industrial companies to abandon the traditional production systems based on the linear (flat economic) transformation of materials into products and their disposal once they are consumed. Therefore, the Commission is considering the possibility of introducing further simplifications to promote increased efficiency of collection systems through the circular economy paradigm. Hence by integrating these systems with the upstream industries that make use of recycled components and raw materials from products entering, the end of their life stage can be profit-

overcoming the traditional neoclassical model of supply and demand.

Inhabitants would enjoy better indoor and outdoor air quality.

ably met as well as protecting the environment (**Figure 6**).

**128**

**Figure 5.**

*Copyright: Ellen MacArthur Foundation.*

**Figure 6.** *Copyright: Ellen MacArthur Foundation.*

Many modern products, especially those of high-tech media and those that transit the web and social networks are truly global, from their creation to distribution and sales. Tools like Netflix, YouTube, Facebook and other forms of communication must be part of a circular economy model that directs towards the reuse and recycling of products in order to create new ones. The whole process can and must be improved.

#### **6. Conclusion as next steps**

Success will only be seen when we are able to achieve a series of improvements over access to and availability of raw materials, with sustainable resource management within a greener, more circular economy and global eco-innovations in technology both in commercial practices to meet the growing demand and ensure the needs in terms of raw material supply. This effort should also lead to changes in behavior that are more consistent with consumers' sustainable use of raw materials.

The dynamics linked to the circular economy can thus be transformed into a solid pillar of the growth strategy of the European Union. The world of industry, in collaboration with governments, must work to address social environmental

challenges and generate concrete benefits for individuals and their communities, especially for families and relatives today which is tomorrow now.

Above all, Circular Economics is global, and is NOT based on supply and demand. Nations, regions, cities and communities all need to be joined together as they: (1) work to reverse climate change, (2) create new business models and systems, (3) develop new areas of work, business and family, and (4) create areas that are needed now and into the future for ALL people around the world.

#### **Author details**

Woodrow W. Clark II1 \* and Danilo Bonato2

1 Founder and Managing Director, Clark Strategic Partners, Beverly Hills, CA, USA

2 Director General Remedia, Milan, Italy

\*Address all correspondence to: wwclark13@gmail.com

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**131**

*Circular Economy: The Strategies to Global Business Economics*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88617*

[1] Clark WW II, Bonato D. Chapter 7: Circular economics. In: Clark WW II, Fast M, editors. Qualitative and Quantitative Economics (Q2E): Making Economics into a Science. New York, USA: Hauppauge, Nova Press; 2019. Available from: www.novapublishers.

[2] Clark WW II, Bonato D. Case: Circular economics. In: Clark WW II, Fast M, editors. Qualitative Economics. 2nd ed. Cham, Switzerland: Springer

[3] Clark WW, Bonato D. Circular Economics. HuffPost; 2015. Available from: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ entry/circular-economy\_2\_b\_7029130

[4] Arup Corporation Report. The Future of Urban Consumption in a l.5 C

[5] Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Gravis L, editor. @EMacArthurFR.

[6] Clark WW II, editor. The Next Economics: Global Cases in Energy, Environment, and Climate Change.

[7] Bonato D. General Manager. Remedia. Milan, Italy. Available from: danilo.bonato@consorzioremedia.it

Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK; December 2019. Available from: ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/

circulareconomy.com

Springer Press; 2013

**References**

com

Press; 2019

World: C40. 2018

*Circular Economy: The Strategies to Global Business Economics DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88617*

#### **References**

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

challenges and generate concrete benefits for individuals and their communities,

Above all, Circular Economics is global, and is NOT based on supply and demand. Nations, regions, cities and communities all need to be joined together as they: (1) work to reverse climate change, (2) create new business models and systems, (3) develop new areas of work, business and family, and (4) create areas

that are needed now and into the future for ALL people around the world.

especially for families and relatives today which is tomorrow now.

**130**

**Author details**

Woodrow W. Clark II1

2 Director General Remedia, Milan, Italy

provided the original work is properly cited.

\* and Danilo Bonato2

\*Address all correspondence to: wwclark13@gmail.com

1 Founder and Managing Director, Clark Strategic Partners, Beverly Hills, CA, USA

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

[1] Clark WW II, Bonato D. Chapter 7: Circular economics. In: Clark WW II, Fast M, editors. Qualitative and Quantitative Economics (Q2E): Making Economics into a Science. New York, USA: Hauppauge, Nova Press; 2019. Available from: www.novapublishers. com

[2] Clark WW II, Bonato D. Case: Circular economics. In: Clark WW II, Fast M, editors. Qualitative Economics. 2nd ed. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Press; 2019

[3] Clark WW, Bonato D. Circular Economics. HuffPost; 2015. Available from: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ entry/circular-economy\_2\_b\_7029130

[4] Arup Corporation Report. The Future of Urban Consumption in a l.5 C World: C40. 2018

[5] Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Gravis L, editor. @EMacArthurFR. Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK; December 2019. Available from: ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/ circulareconomy.com

[6] Clark WW II, editor. The Next Economics: Global Cases in Energy, Environment, and Climate Change. Springer Press; 2013

[7] Bonato D. General Manager. Remedia. Milan, Italy. Available from: danilo.bonato@consorzioremedia.it

**Chapter 9**

*Xiaodong Lai*

**Abstract**

and Application

sustainable development in China.

sustainable development

**1. Introduction**

climate change [1].

**133**

Green Technology Innovations

This chapter aims to explore what subjects have been addressed in green technology innovation (GTI) in China and initiate a journey for the next generation of sustainable-oriented research. Thus, the work examined the literatures enlisted in the database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) on the topics of GTI from 1994 to 2019. Some critical discussion and conclusion are sighted as follows: (1) the research of GTI in China is getting mature compared to the energyinnovation related topics and the researches 10 years ago. It is becoming a dominated research subject. (2) The qualitative publications dominates the researches, the empirical researches are in a shortage. (3) The research subjects are multiperspective and multi-disciplinary, covering environment science, management, energy and fuels, economics and social behavior. New vibrancy of advanced theoretical and methodological research is particularly needed. (4) The trend of green technology research appears an interdisciplinary research with the themes related to environmental subject, science technology, business economics, engineering and energy & fuels. (5) Different policy implementations have different effects due to the cost structure and maturity of renewable energy. (6) GTI cannot be isolated from the policy or regulation regime, and is becoming a new underpin of current

**Keywords:** green technology innovation, technology innovation, management,

The global warming, frequent natural disasters and resource shortage occurred in the twenty-one centuries are forcing people to excogitate a new way to save our earth. Many countries are focusing on the development of low carbon economy or green economy. The development with green technology innovation orientation and policy regulation to drive an energy evolution and the establishment of a new economy development with less GHG emission are acknowledged to prolong the

In order to understand the past, present and future with regard to the technology innovation in green research and practice in China, a typical emerging country

Development in China: Trend

#### **Chapter 9**

## Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application

*Xiaodong Lai*

#### **Abstract**

This chapter aims to explore what subjects have been addressed in green technology innovation (GTI) in China and initiate a journey for the next generation of sustainable-oriented research. Thus, the work examined the literatures enlisted in the database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) on the topics of GTI from 1994 to 2019. Some critical discussion and conclusion are sighted as follows: (1) the research of GTI in China is getting mature compared to the energyinnovation related topics and the researches 10 years ago. It is becoming a dominated research subject. (2) The qualitative publications dominates the researches, the empirical researches are in a shortage. (3) The research subjects are multiperspective and multi-disciplinary, covering environment science, management, energy and fuels, economics and social behavior. New vibrancy of advanced theoretical and methodological research is particularly needed. (4) The trend of green technology research appears an interdisciplinary research with the themes related to environmental subject, science technology, business economics, engineering and energy & fuels. (5) Different policy implementations have different effects due to the cost structure and maturity of renewable energy. (6) GTI cannot be isolated from the policy or regulation regime, and is becoming a new underpin of current sustainable development in China.

**Keywords:** green technology innovation, technology innovation, management, sustainable development

#### **1. Introduction**

The global warming, frequent natural disasters and resource shortage occurred in the twenty-one centuries are forcing people to excogitate a new way to save our earth. Many countries are focusing on the development of low carbon economy or green economy. The development with green technology innovation orientation and policy regulation to drive an energy evolution and the establishment of a new economy development with less GHG emission are acknowledged to prolong the climate change [1].

In order to understand the past, present and future with regard to the technology innovation in green research and practice in China, a typical emerging country in Asia, this chapter took the source of primary database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI)<sup>1</sup> as a particular intellectual domain for analysis. The purpose of this article tries to provide with facts that help researchers and practitioners understand what issues or subjects have been addressed in green technology innovation and anchor the trends for the next generation of sustainable-oriented research.

eco-biology field. However, we do feel that many of the interesting insights arise through a detailed review of these articles. In our research we organized the articles with six different approaches by (1) period sequence, (2) research methods, (3) research level, (4) research subjects, (5) keywords cluster, (6) Institution, (7) Foundation, and (8) themes of articles (this is separately analyzed in the fourth section). With the above approaches used in this article, this paper is trying to propose an indication of the trend of green technology research and help the readers to understand the milestone throughout the development of green technology innovation. It can also serve the on-site practitioners to understand the research trend in China.

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application*

**3. Overview of the literatures from the database of CNKI**

Firstly, the raw data retrieved from the database of CNKI with timelines and publication quantity shown in **Table 1** and made a time series bar graph in **Figure 1**. It shows the yearly publication distribution in the field of green technology innovation each year. Obviously, in the period from 1994 to 2000, there were a few articles related to green technology innovation published internationally. Only 50 articles appeared per our review. However, in the period from 2001 to 2005, it was 176 articles, three times more than the previous. Late on, in the period of 2006–2010, a dramatic increase of information consisting of 251 articles, it remains a steady publication increase as well as green concept are recognized by the public, and the QTY increased by 922 publications in the period of 2011–2019 as of 7-31-2019.

It can be seen from the above trends that the academic field is paying more and more attention to the innovation of green technologies. It indicates that the new research areas of green technology innovation mainly focus on technology development and model innovation. The new trend that focuses on technology development represents the new requirements of the modern society for the innovation level, that is, the hard demand for new technology development to improve the relevant industry benefits. The combination of academic research and social

A further review of these articles from the research method perspective was conducted. Referring to the literature of Shi and Lai [2], we divided the research methods into four categories: conceptual, model, empirical and qualitative methods. Here we only explore the articles cited in databases "CNKI" and selected the high cited articles and hot articles from them. In this way we got 1346 articles for analyzing. **Table 2** and **Figure 2** shows the distributions of those articles across conceptual, model, empirical and qualitative methods in every 5 years and the total quantity from 1994 to 2019 per each method. It can be seen that the model articles have gained 18% and the empirical articles have gained 15%. While the conceptual account for 49%, and the qualitative method occupies 18%, both achieve 67%. It indicates that the green technology innovation in China is still at a developing stage and the method of model and empirical are not adequate. It needs to encourage researchers to use data and models for better illustrating the relationship between

elements in order to adapt to the needs of green technology development.

**3.1 Publications classified by period sequence**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

production is more closely integrated.

**135**

**3.2 Publications classified by research method**

The remaining parts of this article are divided into four sections. In section two, the methodology and search selection are presented. In the third section, the analysis of the literatures by classifying them into different types is conducted. In the fourth section, an extensive detail study on the international research themes of green technology innovation is presented, and to a further step. A brief discussion with conclusion is given in the last section.

#### **2. Methodology and search criterion**

Through our exploration of the literature reviews within the domain of social energy system and sustainable development, we found that the literature review from the perspective of low carbon-oriented green technology is very few [2]. Carbon emission problem is becoming a serious issue right now, which is threatening the welfare of human beings. The research on carbon emission problems is being the mainstream in the existing green technology research. Therefore, this paper continue the research exploration as paper [2] but focus on the development trend in China to further invest the research status of green technology innovation after 10 years.

This article employs a methodology to reviewing the articles cited in the databases "CNKI" with "green technology innovation" as the "topic." The earliest published article related to green technology innovation topic appeared in 1994 [3]. By pulling all the articles from 1994 to 2019, 2014 articles are identified that fell within the domain of our topic "green technology innovation". Eleven overlapped article has been omitted, we has an overall glanced over for all the retrieved publications, and removed the reports, notices, announcements, conference summaries, exclusive interview, laws or regulation introductions and some researches with no green technology innovation involved, we also deleted some anonymous researches or some companies' green technology introductions. In addition, by scanning the titles and the abstracts of each article published from 1994 to 2019 and using related keywords for double review, it was found that 1348 articles mainly focus on our themes of "green technology innovation", thus, 1348 articles are kept as the research sample. Considering the searching engine objective problem, some articles with such subject may not 100% be retrieved, Therefore, this paper modestly believed that this approach was likely to have presented nearly every related article in these two databases.

It should be noted that, we cannot possibly provide a truly comprehensive review for all the articles, especially for those in a particular research field, e.g. chemistry and

<sup>1</sup> CNKI: CNKI project started with an e-journal product and later further expand the product line to cover newspapers, dissertations, proceedings, yearbooks and reference works and etc. CNKI is a symbol of Chinese e-publishing industry, which greatly boosted the Chinese library systems to go digital and helped researchers with their work. So far CNKI academic databases have been serving more than 5500 universities, public and corporate libraries, hospitals and other institutions inside and outside of China.

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

eco-biology field. However, we do feel that many of the interesting insights arise through a detailed review of these articles. In our research we organized the articles with six different approaches by (1) period sequence, (2) research methods, (3) research level, (4) research subjects, (5) keywords cluster, (6) Institution, (7) Foundation, and (8) themes of articles (this is separately analyzed in the fourth section).

With the above approaches used in this article, this paper is trying to propose an indication of the trend of green technology research and help the readers to understand the milestone throughout the development of green technology innovation. It can also serve the on-site practitioners to understand the research trend in China.

#### **3. Overview of the literatures from the database of CNKI**

#### **3.1 Publications classified by period sequence**

in Asia, this chapter took the source of primary database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI)<sup>1</sup> as a particular intellectual domain for analysis. The purpose of this article tries to provide with facts that help researchers and practitioners understand what issues or subjects have been addressed in green technology innovation and anchor the trends for the next generation of sustainable-oriented

The remaining parts of this article are divided into four sections. In section two, the methodology and search selection are presented. In the third section, the analysis of the literatures by classifying them into different types is conducted. In the fourth section, an extensive detail study on the international research themes of green technology innovation is presented, and to a further step. A brief discussion

Through our exploration of the literature reviews within the domain of social energy system and sustainable development, we found that the literature review from the perspective of low carbon-oriented green technology is very few [2]. Carbon emission problem is becoming a serious issue right now, which is threatening the welfare of human beings. The research on carbon emission problems is being the mainstream in the existing green technology research. Therefore, this paper continue the research exploration as paper [2] but focus on the development trend in China to further invest the research status of green technology innovation after

This article employs a methodology to reviewing the articles cited in the databases "CNKI" with "green technology innovation" as the "topic." The earliest published article related to green technology innovation topic appeared in 1994 [3]. By pulling all the articles from 1994 to 2019, 2014 articles are identified that fell within the domain of our topic "green technology innovation". Eleven overlapped article has been omitted, we has an overall glanced over for all the retrieved publications, and removed the reports, notices, announcements, conference summaries, exclusive interview, laws or regulation introductions and some researches with no green technology innovation involved, we also deleted some anonymous researches or some companies' green technology introductions. In addition, by scanning the titles and the abstracts of each article published from 1994 to 2019 and using related keywords for double review, it was found that 1348 articles mainly focus on our themes of "green technology innovation", thus, 1348 articles are kept as the

research sample. Considering the searching engine objective problem, some articles with such subject may not 100% be retrieved, Therefore, this paper modestly believed that this approach was likely to have presented nearly every related article

It should be noted that, we cannot possibly provide a truly comprehensive review for all the articles, especially for those in a particular research field, e.g. chemistry and

<sup>1</sup> CNKI: CNKI project started with an e-journal product and later further expand the product line to cover newspapers, dissertations, proceedings, yearbooks and reference works and etc. CNKI is a symbol of Chinese e-publishing industry, which greatly boosted the Chinese library systems to go digital and helped researchers with their work. So far CNKI academic databases have been serving more than 5500 universities, public and corporate libraries, hospitals and other institutions inside and outside of China.

research.

10 years.

in these two databases.

**134**

with conclusion is given in the last section.

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

**2. Methodology and search criterion**

Firstly, the raw data retrieved from the database of CNKI with timelines and publication quantity shown in **Table 1** and made a time series bar graph in **Figure 1**. It shows the yearly publication distribution in the field of green technology innovation each year. Obviously, in the period from 1994 to 2000, there were a few articles related to green technology innovation published internationally. Only 50 articles appeared per our review. However, in the period from 2001 to 2005, it was 176 articles, three times more than the previous. Late on, in the period of 2006–2010, a dramatic increase of information consisting of 251 articles, it remains a steady publication increase as well as green concept are recognized by the public, and the QTY increased by 922 publications in the period of 2011–2019 as of 7-31-2019.

It can be seen from the above trends that the academic field is paying more and more attention to the innovation of green technologies. It indicates that the new research areas of green technology innovation mainly focus on technology development and model innovation. The new trend that focuses on technology development represents the new requirements of the modern society for the innovation level, that is, the hard demand for new technology development to improve the relevant industry benefits. The combination of academic research and social production is more closely integrated.

#### **3.2 Publications classified by research method**

A further review of these articles from the research method perspective was conducted. Referring to the literature of Shi and Lai [2], we divided the research methods into four categories: conceptual, model, empirical and qualitative methods. Here we only explore the articles cited in databases "CNKI" and selected the high cited articles and hot articles from them. In this way we got 1346 articles for analyzing. **Table 2** and **Figure 2** shows the distributions of those articles across conceptual, model, empirical and qualitative methods in every 5 years and the total quantity from 1994 to 2019 per each method. It can be seen that the model articles have gained 18% and the empirical articles have gained 15%. While the conceptual account for 49%, and the qualitative method occupies 18%, both achieve 67%. It indicates that the green technology innovation in China is still at a developing stage and the method of model and empirical are not adequate. It needs to encourage researchers to use data and models for better illustrating the relationship between elements in order to adapt to the needs of green technology development.


#### **Table 1.**

*Literatures publication status on green technology innovation from 1994 to 2019.*

In fact, the model method can help apply the technology innovation influence on practice. The most representative publication using formal model method is Zhang and Zhu [4], the paper chooses productivity of resources and environment loads as output variables, and develops an empirical study using four-stage DEA model to analyze technological innovation efficiency of industrial enterprises, result suggest that the environmental factors are conductive to the technological innovation efficiency. It has been cited more than 162 times as of July 31, 2019. The other four publications with higher citation are Xu et al. [5] (109 times citation), Zhang and Qiu [6] (85 times citation), Qian et al. [7] (74 times citation) and Luo and Liang [8]

(68 times citation).

**137**

**Figure 1.**

**Table 2.**

**Figure 2.**

*Literatures on green technology innovation publication status from 1994 to 2019.*

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

*Percentage distribution of literatures by research methods in every 5 years.*

*Percentage distribution of literatures by research methods.*

**Types 1994–1998 1999–2003 2004–2008 2009–2013 2014–2019 Total Rate** Empirical 1 2 10 35 154 202 15% Qualitative 6 17 40 75 109 247 18% Conceptual 26 86 188 149 210 659 49% Model 1 6 8 35 188 238 18%

Sub-total 34 111 246 294 661 1346

#### *Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

**Figure 1.**

*Literatures on green technology innovation publication status from 1994 to 2019.*


#### **Table 2.**

*Percentage distribution of literatures by research methods in every 5 years.*

#### **Figure 2.**

*Percentage distribution of literatures by research methods.*

In fact, the model method can help apply the technology innovation influence on practice. The most representative publication using formal model method is Zhang and Zhu [4], the paper chooses productivity of resources and environment loads as output variables, and develops an empirical study using four-stage DEA model to analyze technological innovation efficiency of industrial enterprises, result suggest that the environmental factors are conductive to the technological innovation efficiency. It has been cited more than 162 times as of July 31, 2019. The other four publications with higher citation are Xu et al. [5] (109 times citation), Zhang and Qiu [6] (85 times citation), Qian et al. [7] (74 times citation) and Luo and Liang [8] (68 times citation).

**136**

QTY

*The cut-off date for the above data is 7-31-2019.*

**Table 1.** *Literatures*

 *publication*

 *status on green technology innovation*

 *from 1994 to 2019.*

 2

 1

 3

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

The empirical research method is a powerful way to analyze the relation of different factor. For instance, Li. et al. [9] uses none radial and none angle SBM efficiency measurement model considering the undesirable outputs, combined with the ML productivity index to measure the efficiency of green technology and green total factor productivity of industry, which gains 283 times citation as of July 31, 2019, which is the highest citation publication so far. Another three authors [10] use empirical research method to analyze the relationship among market demand, green product innovation, and firm performance. In addition to technology adoption and field experiments in different industries, the empirical method is used to research the impact of low carbon technology policies and the application of low carbon technology in the market. There are four typical representative publications with higher citation (over 60-time citation), namely, Chen [11] (111 times citation). Chen et al. [12] (86 times citation), Li, et al. [13] (76 times citation) and Wang and Zhu [14] (64 times citation).

Schumpeter's micro-meso-macroeconomics definition [24], and classified the research level as "macroscopic, mesoscopic and microscopical". For the articles regarding policies, regulations, national mechanism, national ecosystem, global comparison, concepts and sustainable development etc., we coded them as a macroscopic level. While for the articles involved with the country or territory's economy development, the country or territory's technology adoption and diffusion, national policy or technology promotion, regional economic development or technology adoption, and etc., we coded them as the mesoscopic level. For the articles involved with concept, basic research, product design, risk management, empirical research, models, entrepreneurship innovation, and technology innovation capabil-

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application*

**Figure 3** shows the distribution of the different research levels, macroscopic research level gains 54%, the research related to national policies, including the impact of different policies on different technological innovations, the assistance of policies to renewable energy technologies entering the market and so on, are all gained much attention by the Chinese scholars. The top five cited articles of this level are Guo [11], Zhao [25], Chen [18], Zhou [26], Li and Yang [27] mesoscopic research level are keeps 11%, the themes related to the impact of green revolution on industry and territory, including the acceptance of green economy and new technologies in society, the efficiency of new technologies in some industries and so on. For example, Lin et al. [28] analyzed the green technology innovation efficiency of China's manufacturing industries. Wang et al. [29] discussed the green development strategy in Peal River Delta of China, and Luo and Liang [8] studied the regional industrial enterprises green technology innovation efficiency and factors decode. You and Wang [30] verified the environmental regulation effectiveness on

Microscopic research level are keeps 35%, this phenomenon reflects that current researches still focused on specific and concrete aspects, especially the technology innovation and most of them are about the application of new technology in the firms and environmental improvement. Most of the articles in microscopical level are about the inventions of new technology and method, including the technique of detecting chemical substances, improvements in technologies and so on. Typical representative articles are Wang et al. [31], Wang and Li [32],

ity, we coded them as the microscopical level.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

R&D bias of strengthening the green technology.

*Literatures on green technology classified by research level.*

Zhang and Li [33], etc.

**Figure 3.**

**139**

The qualitative research of green technology innovation focuses on the technology introduction, adoption and green path discussion. For example, Guo [15], a literature with more than 125 times citation as of the end of July, it believed that ecological industrial park is a concrete path to the realization of the sustainable development of industry economy and the most ideal model to realize the sustainable development of whole society. Dai and Liu [16] thought that green innovation in China sustainable development need the driving forces from demand, institution and technology innovation, an environmental innovation system from national perspective is needed. It gains 93 times citation as of July 31, 2019, the other representative articles are Wu and Yang [17], Chen [18] and Hua [19].

The research employed a conceptual method to introduce green technology concept from different perspectives such as innovation concept, new technology application, policy and etc. For example, the representative authors Qin and Yang [20] introduced Xi JinPing's theory of green development on the basis of the worldwide trend of green growth. It includes the following aspects: transforming the economic development mode poses the premise to realize the green growth; developing recycling economy is an important means of promoting it; improving green technology offers technical support for it; handling with the relation between developing economy and protecting ecological environment is a basic requirement for promoting it; advocating green consumption is the important way to promote it; improving the living environment for the people is the ultimate goal for China to choose it. Xi's thought of green growth is of great theoretical and realistic significance for China green development. As of July 31, 2019, this article gains more than 106-time citation. Zhong and Wang [21] thought that green technology innovation is an effective method to resolve the contradictions between enterprise economic development and environmental deterioration, and proposed related recommendation on the establishment of green technology innovation system, this article has been cited with more than 97 times as of 2019. Another two outstanding representative articles are Xu and Wang [22], Zhao [23], these articles introduce the latest development in green technology innovation.

From above analysis, we can see the green technology innovation in China is still under development stage, the conceptual and qualitative methods researches dominate in quantity for quite some time, while the model and empirical researches need more practice and employment.

#### **3.3 Publications classified by research level**

We reviewed all the articles' main contents based on the abstract descriptions. For the analysis purpose, we took the research level code scheme based on

#### *Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

Schumpeter's micro-meso-macroeconomics definition [24], and classified the research level as "macroscopic, mesoscopic and microscopical". For the articles regarding policies, regulations, national mechanism, national ecosystem, global comparison, concepts and sustainable development etc., we coded them as a macroscopic level. While for the articles involved with the country or territory's economy development, the country or territory's technology adoption and diffusion, national policy or technology promotion, regional economic development or technology adoption, and etc., we coded them as the mesoscopic level. For the articles involved with concept, basic research, product design, risk management, empirical research, models, entrepreneurship innovation, and technology innovation capability, we coded them as the microscopical level.

**Figure 3** shows the distribution of the different research levels, macroscopic research level gains 54%, the research related to national policies, including the impact of different policies on different technological innovations, the assistance of policies to renewable energy technologies entering the market and so on, are all gained much attention by the Chinese scholars. The top five cited articles of this level are Guo [11], Zhao [25], Chen [18], Zhou [26], Li and Yang [27] mesoscopic research level are keeps 11%, the themes related to the impact of green revolution on industry and territory, including the acceptance of green economy and new technologies in society, the efficiency of new technologies in some industries and so on. For example, Lin et al. [28] analyzed the green technology innovation efficiency of China's manufacturing industries. Wang et al. [29] discussed the green development strategy in Peal River Delta of China, and Luo and Liang [8] studied the regional industrial enterprises green technology innovation efficiency and factors decode. You and Wang [30] verified the environmental regulation effectiveness on R&D bias of strengthening the green technology.

Microscopic research level are keeps 35%, this phenomenon reflects that current researches still focused on specific and concrete aspects, especially the technology innovation and most of them are about the application of new technology in the firms and environmental improvement. Most of the articles in microscopical level are about the inventions of new technology and method, including the technique of detecting chemical substances, improvements in technologies and so on. Typical representative articles are Wang et al. [31], Wang and Li [32], Zhang and Li [33], etc.

**Figure 3.** *Literatures on green technology classified by research level.*

The empirical research method is a powerful way to analyze the relation of different factor. For instance, Li. et al. [9] uses none radial and none angle SBM efficiency measurement model considering the undesirable outputs, combined with the ML productivity index to measure the efficiency of green technology and green total factor productivity of industry, which gains 283 times citation as of July 31, 2019, which is the highest citation publication so far. Another three authors [10] use empirical research method to analyze the relationship among market demand, green product innovation, and firm performance. In addition to technology adoption and field experiments in different industries, the empirical method is used to research the impact of low carbon technology policies and the application of low carbon technology in the market. There are four typical representative publications with higher citation (over 60-time citation), namely, Chen [11] (111 times citation). Chen et al. [12] (86 times citation), Li, et al. [13] (76 times citation) and Wang and

The qualitative research of green technology innovation focuses on the technology introduction, adoption and green path discussion. For example, Guo [15], a literature with more than 125 times citation as of the end of July, it believed that ecological industrial park is a concrete path to the realization of the sustainable development of industry economy and the most ideal model to realize the sustainable development of whole society. Dai and Liu [16] thought that green innovation in China sustainable development need the driving forces from demand, institution and technology innovation, an environmental innovation system from national perspective is needed. It gains 93 times citation as of July 31, 2019, the other representative articles are Wu and Yang [17], Chen [18] and Hua [19].

The research employed a conceptual method to introduce green technology concept from different perspectives such as innovation concept, new technology application, policy and etc. For example, the representative authors Qin and Yang [20] introduced Xi JinPing's theory of green development on the basis of the worldwide trend of green growth. It includes the following aspects: transforming the economic development mode poses the premise to realize the green growth; developing recycling economy is an important means of promoting it; improving green technology offers technical support for it; handling with the relation between developing economy and protecting ecological environment is a basic requirement for promoting it; advocating green consumption is the important way to promote it; improving the living environment for the people is the ultimate goal for China to choose it. Xi's thought of green growth is of great theoretical and realistic significance for China green development. As of July 31, 2019, this article gains more than 106-time citation. Zhong and Wang [21] thought that green technology innovation is an effective method to resolve the contradictions between enterprise economic development and environmental deterioration, and proposed related recommendation on the establishment of green technology innovation system, this article has been cited with more than 97 times as of 2019. Another two outstanding representative articles are Xu and Wang [22], Zhao [23], these articles introduce the latest

From above analysis, we can see the green technology innovation in China is still under development stage, the conceptual and qualitative methods researches dominate in quantity for quite some time, while the model and empirical researches

We reviewed all the articles' main contents based on the abstract descriptions.

For the analysis purpose, we took the research level code scheme based on

Zhu [14] (64 times citation).

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

development in green technology innovation.

**3.3 Publications classified by research level**

need more practice and employment.

**138**

#### **3.4 Publications classified by research subject area**

We classified these 1346 articles per research subjects. Based on the original analysis chart downloaded from the CNKI data base, it has total 32 research subjects involved with green technologies. Some of the articles are multidisciplinary, for example, Cao and Zhang [34], Li [35], Zhang et al. [36], Zhang et al. [33]. In order to have a better understanding about the actual classification, we consolidated the overlapped research subjects. For the subject with one article, we put it into the "others" portion for the subject with less than 10 publications, we simplified and showed them in **Table 3**.

From **Table 3**, it can be seen that the distribution of research subject are: green technology innovation (301 articles, 21.41%), enterprise management (183 articles, 13.02%), green technology (111 articles, 7.89%), technology innovation (75 articles, 5.33%), sustainable development (72 articles, 5.12%), green innovation (70 articles, 4.98%), China (64 articles, 4.55%), sustainable/green consumption (58 articles, 4.13%), environmental regulation (55 articles, 3.91%), green development (51 articles, 3.63%). The rest of the articles' distribution is shown in **Table 3**.

The trend of green technology research appears an interdisciplinary research with the topics related to environmental subject, science technology, business economics, engineering and energy & fuels, which are accounting for 83% of the total. It is worth mentioning that the research articles of the top two areas–environmental sciences ecology and business economics are much more compared with other industries, the top five areas in the review of paper [2] is about for 67% of the total. In a word, the trend in the interdisciplinary field remains unchanged but with the increase in social participation, it is relatively concentrated in several subject areas (**Figure 4**).

**3.5 Publications classified by keywords cluster**

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

*Literatures on green technology classified by research subject.*

literatures<sup>2</sup>

**Figure 5.**

**141**

*Keywords cluster with occurrence frequency.*

<sup>2</sup> Here, the authors didn't screen the publication as above mentioned 1346 article.

**Figure 4.**

Based on the above research subject area, we seek further at the research trajectory of scholars from keywords cluster. Firstly, we searched core journals with the theme of "green technology innovation" in CNKI database and found 2014 relevant

analysis, obtained the atlas, and sorted the keyword frequency into a table. As can be seen from **Figure 5** the keywords with high frequency are "Innovation", "Technology", "Policy", "Sustainability", "System", "Performance", "Management", "Energy", "Climate change", "Model" etc. We decided to further analyze them. Technological innovation-related keywords gain highest occurrence frequency. In recent years, energy shortage, climate change, environmental degradation, green economy, low carbon and other phenomena have made people more aware of the

. Then, we imported the data into Citespace for keyword co-occurrence


#### **Table 3.**

*Literatures on green technology classified by research subject.*

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

#### **Figure 4.**

**3.4 Publications classified by research subject area**

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

showed them in **Table 3**.

(**Figure 4**).

Green technology innovation

Sustainable/green consumption

Ecological or green economy

**Table 3.**

**140**

**Subject QTY Rate of 1346**

*Literatures on green technology classified by research subject.*

We classified these 1346 articles per research subjects. Based on the original analysis chart downloaded from the CNKI data base, it has total 32 research subjects involved with green technologies. Some of the articles are multidisciplinary, for example, Cao and Zhang [34], Li [35], Zhang et al. [36], Zhang et al. [33]. In order to have a better understanding about the actual classification, we consolidated the overlapped research subjects. For the subject with one article, we put it into the "others" portion for the subject with less than 10 publications, we simplified and

From **Table 3**, it can be seen that the distribution of research subject are: green technology innovation (301 articles, 21.41%), enterprise management (183 articles,

13.02%), green technology (111 articles, 7.89%), technology innovation (75 articles, 5.33%), sustainable development (72 articles, 5.12%), green innovation (70 articles, 4.98%), China (64 articles, 4.55%), sustainable/green consumption (58 articles, 4.13%), environmental regulation (55 articles, 3.91%), green development (51 articles, 3.63%). The rest of the articles' distribution is shown in **Table 3**. The trend of green technology research appears an interdisciplinary research with the topics related to environmental subject, science technology, business economics, engineering and energy & fuels, which are accounting for 83% of the total. It is worth mentioning that the research articles of the top two areas–environmental sciences ecology and business economics are much more compared with other industries, the top five areas in the review of paper [2] is about for 67% of the total. In a word, the trend in the interdisciplinary field remains unchanged but with the increase in social participation, it is relatively concentrated in several subject areas

**(%)**

Green technology 111 7.89 Green industry system

Green innovation 70 4.98 Environmentally conscious

Enterprise Management 183 13.02 Green building 25 1.78

Technology innovation 75 5.33 Greenization 22 1.56 Sustainable development 72 5.12 Green construction 20 1.42

China 64 4.55 Green barrier 18 1.28

Environmental regulation 55 3.91 Green transformation 17 1.21 Green development 51 3.63 Influence factor 15 1.07

Circular economy 46 3.27 Others 39 2.77

**Subject Qty Rate of**

301 21.41 Ecological civilization 39 2.77

engineering

products

58 4.13 Fiscal management 18 1.28

51 3.63 Green marketing 15 1.07

**1346**

22 1.56

19 1.35

*Literatures on green technology classified by research subject.*

#### **3.5 Publications classified by keywords cluster**

Based on the above research subject area, we seek further at the research trajectory of scholars from keywords cluster. Firstly, we searched core journals with the theme of "green technology innovation" in CNKI database and found 2014 relevant literatures<sup>2</sup> . Then, we imported the data into Citespace for keyword co-occurrence analysis, obtained the atlas, and sorted the keyword frequency into a table. As can be seen from **Figure 5** the keywords with high frequency are "Innovation", "Technology", "Policy", "Sustainability", "System", "Performance", "Management", "Energy", "Climate change", "Model" etc. We decided to further analyze them.

Technological innovation-related keywords gain highest occurrence frequency. In recent years, energy shortage, climate change, environmental degradation, green economy, low carbon and other phenomena have made people more aware of the

**Figure 5.** *Keywords cluster with occurrence frequency.*

<sup>2</sup> Here, the authors didn't screen the publication as above mentioned 1346 article.

importance of sustainable development, and technological innovation is an important driving force for sustainable development. Chinese government conducted various policies and adjusted industrial structures to promote green innovative development of technologies, management and institutions, improve the efficiency of energy consumption, and support green innovative activities. For example, the renewable energies [37] like new energy [38, 39] biotechnology, solar energy, water and other green energy, the green innovations in process control, workmanship [40, 41] or construction method [42], those are the key areas for our researcher to explore and develop.

#### **3.6 Publications classified by institution**

We categorized the 1346 publications according the institution/organizations with a time series. Related results are shown in **Figure 6**, it can be seen that the top institution is Zhejiang University who gains 36 articles, the second one is HUST (Huazhong Science and Technology) with 35 articles, then Northeastern University, Harbin Engineering University of Science and Technology and Kunming University of Science and Technology. There are 30 institutions total with above 10 articles contribution, and most of the institutions are science and technological universities or comprehensive universities with technological and environmental subjects. Those institutions with high publication are supported by the National Nature Science Found and Social Science Found.

#### **3.7 Researches in international journals by Chinese scholars**

It is known that the setup of green technology innovation is from the western's countries like European and American counties, who dominated the technologies and energy consumption at the beginning, then turns to share market of developed countries and developing countries. Share of developing countries escalates and develops, China is one of the most powerful countries among them. However, with the high-speed development of economic and social development, technology innovation changing rapidly and increasing living standards of people, the consumption and waste of energy resources are continuously compounded as well. As the biggest developing country, China has the biggest environmental protection market in the world, thus, this paper also screened the international publications written by Chinese Scholar. **Table 4** presents 10 documents originated from Chinese scholars by browsing the theme of green technology in web of science, an international database for worldwide researchers. It can be seen that green innovation research themes of Chinese scholars mainly concentrate on fields related to

energy, fuel, commercial economy, environmental sciences, engineering and so on, while researches on the theory exploration and management level of energy development have not embodied yet. The Chinese scholars' publications in international journals are less than in the developed countries or regions, but more than the

**Code Headline Author Subject**

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application*

1 Sustainable energy development and climate

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

2 Integrated management for renewable energy resources and CDM resources: A case study [44]

4 Scenario analysis on alternative fuel/vehicle for China's future road transport: Life-cycle energy

5 Study on China's low carbon development in an Economy-Energy-Electricity-Environment

Metabolism and Carbon Emissions: A Case Study

demand and GHG emissions [45]

6 Network Environ Perspective for Urban

7 Influence of household biogas digester use on household energy consumption in a semi-arid rural region of northwest China [48]

8 An optimization model for renewable energy generation and its application in China: A perspective of maximum utilization [47]

9 A review of clean energy innovation and technology transfer in China [49]

10 A review of China's approaches toward a

[50]

**Table 4.**

**143**

sustainable energy future: the period since 1990

*Document researches in selected national journals by Chinese scholars.*

change in China [43]

framework [46]

of Vienna, Austria [47]

**theme**

Environment and ecology

Business and economy

Energy and fuel

Energy and fuel

Chen, Chen Engineering Modeling

Energy and fuel

Energy and fuel

Cong Energy and fuel

Liu, Liang Energy and fuel

Ren, Zeng, Zhou

Ou, Zhang, Chang

Hu, Yuan, Hu

Ding, Niu, Chen, Du, Wu

Zhu, Zhuang, Xiong

Jing, Mingshan **Method**

Qualitative analysis

Case method

Modeling method

Qualitative analysis

method

Investigation method

Literature method

Literature method

Literature method

Our main subject discussed here is for the articles related to green technology innovation, which is more specific and concise restrict in green field than the normal innovation. However, this subject also has the similar area applied to product innovation, technology innovation, technology transfer, technology diffusion, regulation or policy innovations, innovation abilities, even the innovation to the individual firms or organizations. This is a little different from the subject category Based on the characters of green technology innovation, we decompose the broader subject and code the research themes of green technology into seven themes. This is taken the reference of the article by Shane and Ulrich [51] with some modification: (1) regulation or policy innovation, (2) technology innovation adoption & diffusion, (3) technology transfer, (4) technology innovation capability, (5) basic research and advance

We went over all these 1346 articles' abstract contents and categorized the articles based on the above code scheme and screened some similar publications.

development, and (6) Entrepreneurship innovation (see **Table 5**).

publications from other developing countries.

**4. Publications classified by major themes**

**Figure 6.** *Green technology publications per institution.*

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*


#### **Table 4.**

importance of sustainable development, and technological innovation is an important driving force for sustainable development. Chinese government conducted various policies and adjusted industrial structures to promote green innovative development of technologies, management and institutions, improve the efficiency of energy consumption, and support green innovative activities. For example, the renewable energies [37] like new energy [38, 39] biotechnology, solar energy, water and other green energy, the green innovations in process control, workmanship [40, 41] or construction method [42], those are the key areas for our researcher to

We categorized the 1346 publications according the institution/organizations with a time series. Related results are shown in **Figure 6**, it can be seen that the top institution is Zhejiang University who gains 36 articles, the second one is HUST (Huazhong Science and Technology) with 35 articles, then Northeastern University, Harbin Engineering University of Science and Technology and Kunming University of Science and Technology. There are 30 institutions total with above 10 articles contribution, and most of the institutions are science and technological universities or comprehensive universities with technological and environmental subjects. Those institutions with high publication are supported by the National Nature

It is known that the setup of green technology innovation is from the western's countries like European and American counties, who dominated the technologies and energy consumption at the beginning, then turns to share market of developed countries and developing countries. Share of developing countries escalates and develops, China is one of the most powerful countries among them. However, with the high-speed development of economic and social development, technology innovation changing rapidly and increasing living standards of people, the consumption and waste of energy resources are continuously compounded as well. As the biggest developing country, China has the biggest environmental protection market in the world, thus, this paper also screened the international publications written by Chinese Scholar. **Table 4** presents 10 documents originated from Chinese scholars by browsing the theme of green technology in web of science, an international database for worldwide researchers. It can be seen that green innovation research themes of Chinese scholars mainly concentrate on fields related to

explore and develop.

**Figure 6.**

**142**

*Green technology publications per institution.*

**3.6 Publications classified by institution**

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

Science Found and Social Science Found.

**3.7 Researches in international journals by Chinese scholars**

*Document researches in selected national journals by Chinese scholars.*

energy, fuel, commercial economy, environmental sciences, engineering and so on, while researches on the theory exploration and management level of energy development have not embodied yet. The Chinese scholars' publications in international journals are less than in the developed countries or regions, but more than the publications from other developing countries.

#### **4. Publications classified by major themes**

Our main subject discussed here is for the articles related to green technology innovation, which is more specific and concise restrict in green field than the normal innovation. However, this subject also has the similar area applied to product innovation, technology innovation, technology transfer, technology diffusion, regulation or policy innovations, innovation abilities, even the innovation to the individual firms or organizations. This is a little different from the subject category Based on the characters of green technology innovation, we decompose the broader subject and code the research themes of green technology into seven themes. This is taken the reference of the article by Shane and Ulrich [51] with some modification: (1) regulation or policy innovation, (2) technology innovation adoption & diffusion, (3) technology transfer, (4) technology innovation capability, (5) basic research and advance development, and (6) Entrepreneurship innovation (see **Table 5**).

We went over all these 1346 articles' abstract contents and categorized the articles based on the above code scheme and screened some similar publications.


It has 48 articles involved with the effect of innovation on economic growth, there are some typical articles like Hou and Su [52], who firstly studied the green barriers effect to the exported industrial technological innovation. Peng and Sun [53] explored the challenges and strategic solution for the green economic development in China. Li et al. [9] reviewed the environmental regulation effect to the total factors of green production efficiency improvement. Feng et al. [54] discussed the relationships among the regulation difference, innovation driven and economy development in China and put forward the related recommendation regarding the effect of regulation. Xu and Zhen [55], Pei et al. [56], both publications explored the effectiveness of regulation on the economy development in Long River Belt in China. Wu and Yu [57] had a further study regarding the environmental regulation impact on the production efficiency improvement and technology innovation.

71 articles studied the factors influencing the rate of innovation. Li [58] and Gao

Six articles discussed the tools used by policy maker, the representative authors

The theme of impact of specific policies has 59 articles, most of the publications are concentrated on the environmental regulation effect on the green innovation performance or green economic development. The most outstanding articles are Zhang et al. [67]; Li et al. [68]; Xu and Wang [69]; Francesco et al. [70]; Zhang and

Throughout the above articles review, it can be seen that the effects of different policy implementations have different effects due to the different cost structure and maturity of renewable energy. The innovation of green technology can be induced by policies. The feed-in tariffs are relatively more practical. By controlling the relative price of the alternative factors, the demand factors, general scientific ability, the after controlling the relative differences in the economies, the patents tendencies, the number of patents was used as a measure of innovation ability.

The theme of technology innovation adoption and diffusion is the major impressive body research of green technology innovation for our researchers. A total of 93 articles explored this theme. We divided the theme into three

and Wang [59] conducted the green innovation efficiency of high energy consumption industries in Jing-jin-Ji district from a special perspective for China industries development. Yang et al. [60] discussed the green innovation impacts in China and pointed that the regulation factor is one of the critical items for green

development. While the rate of innovation is multiple [61, 62].

are Li et al. [63], Wang et al. [64], Wei [65] and Shi [66].

*Publication on green technology innovation classified by themes.*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application*

**4.2 Technology innovation adoptions and diffusion**

Qu [6]; Xu et al. [5] and Wang [71].

**145**

**Figure 7.**

**Table 5.**

*Major themes and sub-themes code scheme with the domain of green technology innovation.*

69% articles are discussed the theme of regulation or policy innovation, 14% articles were involved with the theme of policies. 3% percent of the articles are discussed with the theme of technology adoption and diffusion. The articles contented with the theme of technology transfer gained 6%. While the articles conducted with the theme of technology innovation capability occupied 6% either. The rest 2% fell on the theme of entrepreneurship Innovation. Detail distribution is shown in **Figure 7**. A further detail analysis by different themes category was illustrated in the Section from 4.1–4.6. For research purposes, we also extended some authors literatures involved in this type of theme from the deeper perspective and across research perspective instead of more than 1346 articles only we stated.

#### **4.1 Regulation effect on green technology innovation**

The theme of regulation or policy is one of the main and traditional research areas of technology innovation. It has a critical impact on innovation theory development. We classified the articles which related to policy into four categories the effects of innovation on economic growth, factors influencing the rate of innovation, policy tools used by policymaker and the impact of specific policies.

#### *Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

It has 48 articles involved with the effect of innovation on economic growth, there are some typical articles like Hou and Su [52], who firstly studied the green barriers effect to the exported industrial technological innovation. Peng and Sun [53] explored the challenges and strategic solution for the green economic development in China. Li et al. [9] reviewed the environmental regulation effect to the total factors of green production efficiency improvement. Feng et al. [54] discussed the relationships among the regulation difference, innovation driven and economy development in China and put forward the related recommendation regarding the effect of regulation. Xu and Zhen [55], Pei et al. [56], both publications explored the effectiveness of regulation on the economy development in Long River Belt in China. Wu and Yu [57] had a further study regarding the environmental regulation impact on the production efficiency improvement and technology innovation.

71 articles studied the factors influencing the rate of innovation. Li [58] and Gao and Wang [59] conducted the green innovation efficiency of high energy consumption industries in Jing-jin-Ji district from a special perspective for China industries development. Yang et al. [60] discussed the green innovation impacts in China and pointed that the regulation factor is one of the critical items for green development. While the rate of innovation is multiple [61, 62].

Six articles discussed the tools used by policy maker, the representative authors are Li et al. [63], Wang et al. [64], Wei [65] and Shi [66].

The theme of impact of specific policies has 59 articles, most of the publications are concentrated on the environmental regulation effect on the green innovation performance or green economic development. The most outstanding articles are Zhang et al. [67]; Li et al. [68]; Xu and Wang [69]; Francesco et al. [70]; Zhang and Qu [6]; Xu et al. [5] and Wang [71].

Throughout the above articles review, it can be seen that the effects of different policy implementations have different effects due to the different cost structure and maturity of renewable energy. The innovation of green technology can be induced by policies. The feed-in tariffs are relatively more practical. By controlling the relative price of the alternative factors, the demand factors, general scientific ability, the after controlling the relative differences in the economies, the patents tendencies, the number of patents was used as a measure of innovation ability.

#### **4.2 Technology innovation adoptions and diffusion**

The theme of technology innovation adoption and diffusion is the major impressive body research of green technology innovation for our researchers. A total of 93 articles explored this theme. We divided the theme into three

69% articles are discussed the theme of regulation or policy innovation, 14% articles were involved with the theme of policies. 3% percent of the articles are discussed with the theme of technology adoption and diffusion. The articles contented with the theme of technology transfer gained 6%. While the articles conducted with the theme of technology innovation capability occupied 6% either. The rest 2% fell on the theme of entrepreneurship Innovation. Detail distribution is shown in **Figure 7**. A further detail analysis by different themes category was illustrated in the Section from 4.1–4.6. For research purposes, we also extended some authors literatures involved in this type of theme from the deeper perspective and across research

The theme of regulation or policy is one of the main and traditional research areas of technology innovation. It has a critical impact on innovation theory development. We classified the articles which related to policy into four categories the effects of innovation on economic growth, factors influencing the rate of innova-

tion, policy tools used by policymaker and the impact of specific policies.

perspective instead of more than 1346 articles only we stated.

**Major themes Sub-themes**

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

3. Technology transfer 3.1. Patent

1. Regulation or policy innovation 1.1. Effect of innovation on economic growth

2. Technology innovation adoption and diffusion 2.1. Pure technology Introduction

4. Technology innovation capability 4.1. Management innovation

5. Basic research and advance development 5.1. Conceptual/theory

6. Entrepreneurship innovation 6.1. Green design strategy

*Major themes and sub-themes code scheme with the domain of green technology innovation.*

1.2. Factors influencing the rate of innovation

2.2. Technology adoption method introduction

2.3. Technology diffusion introduction

3.3. Technology spillover and policy impact

3.2. Learning

5.2. Review

4.2. Design innovation 4.3. Process innovation 4.4. Organization Innovation 4.5. Innovation assessment

5.3. Framework/models 5.4. Driving mechanism

6.2. Innovation efficiency 6.3. Innovation behavior

5.5. Risk innovation and management

1.3. Tools used by policy maker 1.4. Impact of specific policies

**4.1 Regulation effect on green technology innovation**

**Table 5.**

**144**

sub-themes: pure technology introduction, technology method or theory introduction and technology diffusion introduction.

**4.4 Technology innovation management and capability**

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application*

close technical network between supply chain partners.

The rest of articles are Li et al. [94], Hua [95] and Liu et al. [96].

and organization innovation capability.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

of sustainable process technologies.

in this area for researching.

direction of future research.

**147**

**4.5 Basic research and advance development**

The theme of technology innovation capability is a little broad. For analysis like

Six articles argued the innovation management concept related to green technology innovation. For example, Wu [91] discusses the relationship between green supply chain integration (GSCI) and green innovation and pointes that, in order to improve green innovation performance, managers should strive to integrate resources and capabilities among their organizations, suppliers and customers. The managers should constantly pay attention to market demand trends and maintain a

The design method innovation is also a critical research theme in technology. Six typical articles presented herein are very useful for our practitioners to study. Song and Yang [92] reviewed the relations between the financial performance and green innovation, and pointed that green capabilities are much related with the aid of finance. Han and Yan [93] explored how to the innovation capability impact the enterprises value-adding. Li et al. [68] analyzed the relationship among the environmental regulation, R&D investment and enterprises green technology ability.

Regardless of the technology innovation itself, the subject of process innovation is also well-accepted by our researchers, particularly in the big construction induction of green innovation, e.g., Fu [97] proposed that environmental regulations and corporate characteristics are the most widely studied factors affecting the adoption

Organization innovation is another sustentation on green technology. It has three sub-themes such as the effort of organization structure, communication patterns and decision making. Only a small number of typical articles relate to the impact of organizational innovation on green technologies technology innovations. The above analysis provides a possible direction for us that the effectiveness of innovation does not only depend on the technology but also depend on the related responsible stakeholder concept of innovation and its capability across with the management, organization and process innovation. Based on the deep research, it can be caught that, the capacity innovation, ecological innovation, leadership, and technology trajectory will all become important factors influencing green technology innovation. It is a result of core team cooperation and there are a lot of potential

Through the above literatures, it was sighted that the research of green technology innovation in enterprise management gradually turns from the macro aspect to the micro aspect. After analyzing the green macro strategy of enterprises, scholars begin to pay more attention to micro factors such as enterprise organization, system design and innovation ability. Meanwhile, government policies are becoming an important influencing factor of low-carbon economy and green economy, and the

The Basic research and advance development theme involved the topics of concept or theory, reviews, framework/models, driving mechanism, risk and innovation management. 697 articles discussed the basics research with the themes of conceptual or theory introduction, most of the articles discussed the concept of green technology innovation and the reason why need develop green economy in

the one cited above, we divided it into four sub-themes such as the innovation research of management capability, design capability, process control capability

Several articles introduced the pure green technology adoptions in different fields such as Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge construction, green building, oil and mine industry etc. [72–79]. These articles are good representative example for green technology adoptions in China.

Technology innovation and diffusion theories are discussed and extended. Yun and Lee examined key factors of renewable energy systems diffusion from a sociotechnological perspective [80].

The technology adoption theory with empirical application based is also one of the key research themes. E.g., Zhou et al. [81] investigated a specific example of a demonstration project in China to support the large-scale diffusion of green technology and its pilot implementations and revealed that these demonstrations face a different set of diffusion barriers. Zhu et al. [82] studied Chinese manufacturers GSCM adoption practices to see if this adoption affects their performance or not.

The themes about the technology diffusion policy were recommended with the theoretical and empirical analysis in several articles which cover innovative green procurement [83], mechanisms that can accelerate the technology diffusion [84–87].

The above exploration shows that people take great efforts on the real actual experiment and achievement in the adoption of the green technology, such as the sample survey, case study or fields study with primary data. The typical research articles are influential, for example, Zhu and Sarkis [88]. gained more than 108 times citation up to now. "The models that underlie much of the diffusion literature have their roots in physical diffusion processes". Green technology innovation diffusion takes leading the regional economic development, they save the energy with low CO2 emission or zero-energy emission.

Furthermore, this review provides the information that the researchers' focus is within new energy introduction, renew energy development, new methods, new process improvement and even new conception or culture implantation. This is a new trend of green technology development.

#### **4.3 Technology transfer**

When introducing the technological track of the green revolution, Liu and Liang [88] explores potential policies and schemes promoting the transfer of CCS technologies to developing countries, then makes an attempt to understand technology transfer including its benefits, barriers, and definition. Ai et al. [89] studied the impact of various technological progress patterns on China's regional environmental performance using spatial econometrics and find that there are significant spatial effects of technology innovation, technology transfer on China's regional environmental performance. Liang and Luo (2019) studied the dynamic effect analysis for international R&D capital output to green technology [90].

The realization of technology transfer in green revolution is influenced by many factors. The process of green technology transfer needs to take full account of the capacity of enterprises and the policy support systems. At the same time, the increase of independent innovation capacity will play a positive role in technology transfer. From the perspective of historical development, in the environment of rapid improvement of independent innovation ability and intensified international competition, the transfer of green technology in developed countries will have a more positive impact on developing countries. Developing countries should also try their best to improve their technology adaptation level and absorptive capacity to accept the technology transfer of the green revolution in a proactive manner.

#### **4.4 Technology innovation management and capability**

sub-themes: pure technology introduction, technology method or theory introduc-

Several articles introduced the pure green technology adoptions in different fields such as Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge construction, green building, oil and mine industry etc. [72–79]. These articles are good representative example for

Technology innovation and diffusion theories are discussed and extended. Yun and Lee examined key factors of renewable energy systems diffusion from a socio-

The technology adoption theory with empirical application based is also one of the key research themes. E.g., Zhou et al. [81] investigated a specific example of a demonstration project in China to support the large-scale diffusion of green technology and its pilot implementations and revealed that these demonstrations face a different set of diffusion barriers. Zhu et al. [82] studied Chinese manufacturers GSCM adoption practices to see if this adoption affects their performance or not. The themes about the technology diffusion policy were recommended with the theoretical and empirical analysis in several articles which cover innovative green procurement [83], mechanisms that can accelerate the technology diffusion [84–87]. The above exploration shows that people take great efforts on the real actual experiment and achievement in the adoption of the green technology, such as the sample survey, case study or fields study with primary data. The typical research articles are influential, for example, Zhu and Sarkis [88]. gained more than 108 times citation up to now. "The models that underlie much of the diffusion literature have their roots in physical diffusion processes". Green technology innovation diffusion takes leading the regional economic development, they save the energy

Furthermore, this review provides the information that the researchers' focus is within new energy introduction, renew energy development, new methods, new process improvement and even new conception or culture implantation. This is a

When introducing the technological track of the green revolution, Liu and Liang [88] explores potential policies and schemes promoting the transfer of CCS technologies to developing countries, then makes an attempt to understand technology transfer including its benefits, barriers, and definition. Ai et al. [89] studied the impact of various technological progress patterns on China's regional environmental performance using spatial econometrics and find that there are significant spatial effects of technology innovation, technology transfer on China's regional environmental performance. Liang and Luo (2019) studied the dynamic effect analysis for

The realization of technology transfer in green revolution is influenced by many factors. The process of green technology transfer needs to take full account of the capacity of enterprises and the policy support systems. At the same time, the increase of independent innovation capacity will play a positive role in technology transfer. From the perspective of historical development, in the environment of rapid improvement of independent innovation ability and intensified international competition, the transfer of green technology in developed countries will have a more positive impact on developing countries. Developing countries should also try their best to improve their technology adaptation level and absorptive capacity to accept the technology transfer of the green revolution in a proactive manner.

tion and technology diffusion introduction.

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

with low CO2 emission or zero-energy emission.

new trend of green technology development.

international R&D capital output to green technology [90].

**4.3 Technology transfer**

**146**

green technology adoptions in China.

technological perspective [80].

The theme of technology innovation capability is a little broad. For analysis like the one cited above, we divided it into four sub-themes such as the innovation research of management capability, design capability, process control capability and organization innovation capability.

Six articles argued the innovation management concept related to green technology innovation. For example, Wu [91] discusses the relationship between green supply chain integration (GSCI) and green innovation and pointes that, in order to improve green innovation performance, managers should strive to integrate resources and capabilities among their organizations, suppliers and customers. The managers should constantly pay attention to market demand trends and maintain a close technical network between supply chain partners.

The design method innovation is also a critical research theme in technology. Six typical articles presented herein are very useful for our practitioners to study. Song and Yang [92] reviewed the relations between the financial performance and green innovation, and pointed that green capabilities are much related with the aid of finance. Han and Yan [93] explored how to the innovation capability impact the enterprises value-adding. Li et al. [68] analyzed the relationship among the environmental regulation, R&D investment and enterprises green technology ability. The rest of articles are Li et al. [94], Hua [95] and Liu et al. [96].

Regardless of the technology innovation itself, the subject of process innovation is also well-accepted by our researchers, particularly in the big construction induction of green innovation, e.g., Fu [97] proposed that environmental regulations and corporate characteristics are the most widely studied factors affecting the adoption of sustainable process technologies.

Organization innovation is another sustentation on green technology. It has three sub-themes such as the effort of organization structure, communication patterns and decision making. Only a small number of typical articles relate to the impact of organizational innovation on green technologies technology innovations.

The above analysis provides a possible direction for us that the effectiveness of innovation does not only depend on the technology but also depend on the related responsible stakeholder concept of innovation and its capability across with the management, organization and process innovation. Based on the deep research, it can be caught that, the capacity innovation, ecological innovation, leadership, and technology trajectory will all become important factors influencing green technology innovation. It is a result of core team cooperation and there are a lot of potential in this area for researching.

Through the above literatures, it was sighted that the research of green technology innovation in enterprise management gradually turns from the macro aspect to the micro aspect. After analyzing the green macro strategy of enterprises, scholars begin to pay more attention to micro factors such as enterprise organization, system design and innovation ability. Meanwhile, government policies are becoming an important influencing factor of low-carbon economy and green economy, and the direction of future research.

#### **4.5 Basic research and advance development**

The Basic research and advance development theme involved the topics of concept or theory, reviews, framework/models, driving mechanism, risk and innovation management. 697 articles discussed the basics research with the themes of conceptual or theory introduction, most of the articles discussed the concept of green technology innovation and the reason why need develop green economy in

China. [53, 98–100] but it needs to pay attention the green innovation system platform construction such as consumption mode [101], innovation system [102, 103], policy supporting system [104, 105], law system [106] and green cultural system [107, 108].

35 articles implemented the theme of Innovation assessment, some the articles focus on the assessment method [130, 131], five articles discussed the innovation ability assessment, the representative authors are Sun and Cao [132], Xie et al. [133] and Jia [134]. Seven articles explored the innovation efficiency assessment like

The last theme of green technology innovation is the role of entrepreneurship innovation. We divided this theme further into four sub-themes: entrepreneurship green design strategy, enterprise decision making and individual achievement. We caught five articles appeared from 1994 to 2019 involved with the role of individual.

Xu and Zhang [105], Jiang [138], found that green entrepreneur orientation has a positive impact on the environment and financial performance. Xie et al. [139] surveyed the resources enterprises' green behavior and found that benefit is one of

Through above articles' exploration, it is known that that entrepreneurship is one of the key players in the process of green and sustainable innovation. However, the technological innovations used in the cooperation are mainly cost-oriented.

Our detailed exploration of these articles is not very extensive. However, we are witnessing green technology innovations involving many different types of topics that are more complex than our normal technological innovations because their impact has a profound impact on people's living environment and all different lines of business. And it is significant. Some topics have changed over time, leaving a lot

The themes of entrepreneurship dominates within the scope of the different type of entrepreneurs based on the previous review by Shi and Lai [2] are multiple such as the social corporate responsibility, the decision effect of entrepreneurs on enterprise's green technology innovation, and the role of entrepreneurs in green economy development or society improvement. While based on the review in China, it is not enough, noted that our selection of research is "green technology innovation", it is different. Moreover, the enterprise participant is crucial for green development, scholars are encouraging to pay attention on the role of entrepreneurship and education in cultivating entrepreneurs' green entrepreneurship,

Through the analysis of the articles in CNKI from 1994 to 2019, we have identified that, although the research topics of green technology innovation are varied, the main stream is focusing on the technology adoption, diffusion, transfer, policy recommendation, or implementation, and advanced technology development currently, which can be regarded as convergence out of divergence.

that green technology innovation is getting mature compared to the energyinnovation related topics. It is becoming a dominated research subject coupled with

social energy system innovation contributing to the green and sustainable

Based on the overall review for the publication from 1994 to 2019, we caught out

Huang et al. [135], Sun et al. [136], and Zhang et al. [137].

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application*

**4.6 The role of entrepreneurship innovation**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

Some outstanding articles presented below.

of room for our researchers.

**5. Result and discussion**

development.

**149**

**5.1 Insight from our exploration**

the critical items for the green activities' participants.

which is a critical element of sustainable development.

43 articles are reviews and comment on the green technology development, literatures review, trend and forecast discussion in China. Typical articles are Guo and Zhang et al. [109], it pointed out that the "environment-economy" development science and technology is a big dilemma in the process of sustainable development in various countries. It needs to clarify the impacts among the environmental regulation and governmental R&D funding and green technology innovation and study the function of promoting or suppressing. Wang [110] thinks that the technological innovation generated by environmental policy is the key for China achieving its long-term green development, the market driven force for environmental-friendly innovation activities is lacked, whereas environmental policy can provide motivation. Li and Yang [111] employed an analytical framework proposed by Astley [112], who developed a systematic, coherent analysis on the level, phase, theme and depth of domestic green technology innovation literature, and summarized the characteristics of research and calculated the trend of green technology innovation research by connecting it with the time dimension. Wang [113] summarized the external factors and internal determinants of enterprise competitive advantage from the perspective of regional innovation milieus and green technology innovation and pointed that green technology innovation is the internal factor of enterprise competitive advantage, it is an important part of enterprise internal environment. But with multi factors driving [114].

172 articles studied the theory framework and models of green technology innovation development. The main topic of the theory framework are within the scope of regulation effect to the green technology innovation [115–118], innovation system, the relationship among green technology innovation, industrial agglomeration and ecological efficiency [119, 120]; Li, Peng and Ouyang [9] thought that environmental regulation has an effect on the transformation of China's industrial development mode through green total factor productivity, but there exists the "threshold effect" of environmental regulation strength.

43 articles reviewed the driving mechanism of green technology, Vicky [121] alternative policy mechanisms based on a simulation for green technological innovation, Yu [122] proposed a combination of alliance for enterprises green innovation based on a business case study. Cao (2008) analyzed the interaction among the structure mode, operation mechanism and technology from a perspective of recycling economics, then pointed that that industrial structure transformation with technological innovation is critical. Zhang and Sun [123] conducted an economic-social-recycle system to explore the innovation efficiency mechanism based on an example in Han River eco-economic belt in Hubei Province of China. Guo et al. [124] studied the incentive mechanism for enterprise's green innovation implementation.

Only five articles paid attention on the risk and innovation management for green innovation in China based on the literature review, like Xu and Gu [125] reviewed the risk management for enterprises green innovation and proposed a system risk management framework. Li [126] studied the industry transformation between the western and eastern of China; Chen and Xie [127] employed an Bayesian network model to monitor the innovation for green buildings; Fang [128] pointed that, the eco-culture development need to pay attention on the risk of ecodevelopment; Li et al. [129] identified the risks in manufacturing industry and proposed the related suggestion as well. All these articles have a good reference for the practitioners of the green innovation execution in China [105].

#### *Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

35 articles implemented the theme of Innovation assessment, some the articles focus on the assessment method [130, 131], five articles discussed the innovation ability assessment, the representative authors are Sun and Cao [132], Xie et al. [133] and Jia [134]. Seven articles explored the innovation efficiency assessment like Huang et al. [135], Sun et al. [136], and Zhang et al. [137].

#### **4.6 The role of entrepreneurship innovation**

China. [53, 98–100] but it needs to pay attention the green innovation system platform construction such as consumption mode [101], innovation system [102, 103], policy supporting system [104, 105], law system [106] and green cul-

opment in various countries. It needs to clarify the impacts among the

43 articles are reviews and comment on the green technology development, literatures review, trend and forecast discussion in China. Typical articles are Guo and Zhang et al. [109], it pointed out that the "environment-economy" development science and technology is a big dilemma in the process of sustainable devel-

environmental regulation and governmental R&D funding and green technology innovation and study the function of promoting or suppressing. Wang [110] thinks that the technological innovation generated by environmental policy is the key for China achieving its long-term green development, the market driven force for environmental-friendly innovation activities is lacked, whereas environmental policy can provide motivation. Li and Yang [111] employed an analytical framework proposed by Astley [112], who developed a systematic, coherent analysis on the level, phase, theme and depth of domestic green technology innovation literature, and summarized the characteristics of research and calculated the trend of green technology innovation research by connecting it with the time dimension. Wang [113] summarized the external factors and internal determinants of enterprise competitive advantage from the perspective of regional innovation milieus and green technology innovation and pointed that green technology innovation is the internal factor of enterprise competitive advantage, it is an important part of enterprise internal environment. But with multi factors driving [114].

172 articles studied the theory framework and models of green technology innovation development. The main topic of the theory framework are within the scope of regulation effect to the green technology innovation [115–118], innovation system, the relationship among green technology innovation, industrial agglomeration and ecological efficiency [119, 120]; Li, Peng and Ouyang [9] thought that environmental regulation has an effect on the transformation of China's industrial development mode through green total factor productivity, but there exists the "threshold

43 articles reviewed the driving mechanism of green technology, Vicky [121] alternative policy mechanisms based on a simulation for green technological innovation, Yu [122] proposed a combination of alliance for enterprises green innovation based on a business case study. Cao (2008) analyzed the interaction among the structure mode, operation mechanism and technology from a perspective of recycling economics, then pointed that that industrial structure transformation with technological innovation is critical. Zhang and Sun [123] conducted an economic-social-recycle system to explore the innovation efficiency mechanism based on an example in Han River eco-economic belt in Hubei Province of China. Guo et al. [124] studied the incentive mechanism for enterprise's green innovation

Only five articles paid attention on the risk and innovation management for green innovation in China based on the literature review, like Xu and Gu [125] reviewed the risk management for enterprises green innovation and proposed a system risk management framework. Li [126] studied the industry transformation between the western and eastern of China; Chen and Xie [127] employed an Bayesian network model to monitor the innovation for green buildings; Fang [128] pointed that, the eco-culture development need to pay attention on the risk of ecodevelopment; Li et al. [129] identified the risks in manufacturing industry and proposed the related suggestion as well. All these articles have a good reference for

the practitioners of the green innovation execution in China [105].

effect" of environmental regulation strength.

implementation.

**148**

tural system [107, 108].

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

The last theme of green technology innovation is the role of entrepreneurship innovation. We divided this theme further into four sub-themes: entrepreneurship green design strategy, enterprise decision making and individual achievement. We caught five articles appeared from 1994 to 2019 involved with the role of individual. Some outstanding articles presented below.

Xu and Zhang [105], Jiang [138], found that green entrepreneur orientation has a positive impact on the environment and financial performance. Xie et al. [139] surveyed the resources enterprises' green behavior and found that benefit is one of the critical items for the green activities' participants.

Through above articles' exploration, it is known that that entrepreneurship is one of the key players in the process of green and sustainable innovation. However, the technological innovations used in the cooperation are mainly cost-oriented.

Our detailed exploration of these articles is not very extensive. However, we are witnessing green technology innovations involving many different types of topics that are more complex than our normal technological innovations because their impact has a profound impact on people's living environment and all different lines of business. And it is significant. Some topics have changed over time, leaving a lot of room for our researchers.

The themes of entrepreneurship dominates within the scope of the different type of entrepreneurs based on the previous review by Shi and Lai [2] are multiple such as the social corporate responsibility, the decision effect of entrepreneurs on enterprise's green technology innovation, and the role of entrepreneurs in green economy development or society improvement. While based on the review in China, it is not enough, noted that our selection of research is "green technology innovation", it is different. Moreover, the enterprise participant is crucial for green development, scholars are encouraging to pay attention on the role of entrepreneurship and education in cultivating entrepreneurs' green entrepreneurship, which is a critical element of sustainable development.

#### **5. Result and discussion**

#### **5.1 Insight from our exploration**

Through the analysis of the articles in CNKI from 1994 to 2019, we have identified that, although the research topics of green technology innovation are varied, the main stream is focusing on the technology adoption, diffusion, transfer, policy recommendation, or implementation, and advanced technology development currently, which can be regarded as convergence out of divergence.

Based on the overall review for the publication from 1994 to 2019, we caught out that green technology innovation is getting mature compared to the energyinnovation related topics. It is becoming a dominated research subject coupled with social energy system innovation contributing to the green and sustainable development.

In the period sequence analysis of the articles, we have initialized that China is acting as an emerging star and its publications obviously higher with the times goes, this is helpful for our researchers to have a full understanding of green development roadmap and trend in China.

economic management, engineering, social energy system and etc. are needed for low carbon development in China with green innovation orientation. This opens us a wider consideration that the green technology or is not just a pure technology but a cross functional activity, as a consequence, the technology becomes a low priority compared to the social innovation, such as the saving and efficiency improvement. The review in Section 4.1 indicates that the effects of different policy implementations have different effects due to the different cost structure and maturity of technology. In fact, the green innovation can be induced by policies. The environmental regulation does the effectiveness on promoting the green tech-

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

The finding in Section 4.2 shows: the technology adoption theory with empirical application based is also one of the key research themes. It covers innovative public procurement, dynamic efficiency analysis innovation activities and mechanisms design. People take great efforts on the real actual experiment and achievement in the adoption of green technology, such as the sample survey, case study or fields study with primary data. The typical research articles are influential. Green technology innovation diffusion takes leading the regional economic development. Furthermore, the researchers' focus is within new technology introduction, renewable energy development, new methods, new process improvement and even new conception or culture implantation. This is a new trend of green technology develop-

In Section 4.3, the realization of technology transfer in green revolution is influenced by many factors. Green technology transfer needs to take full account of the capacity of absorbing countries and governments and the obstacles of intellectual property rights system. The increase of independent innovation capacity in China will play a positive role in technology transfer. From the perspective of historical development, in the environment of rapid improvement of independent innovation ability and intensified international competition, the transfer of green technology in developed countries will have a more positive impact on China's development, though China now is a second position in the world, many core technologies still need to import or transfer from the developed countries. It needs to increase the technology adaptation level and absorptive capacity to accept the

While for the technological management and capability analysis in Section 4.4, it was sighted that the research of green technology innovation in enterprise management gradually turns from the macro aspect to the micro aspect, but it is not enough. After analyzing the green macro strategy of enterprises, scholars begin to pay more attention to micro factors such as enterprise organization, system design and innovation ability. Therefore, the government policies are becoming an important influencing factor of green innovation development, and the direction of future research. In Section 4.5, the advanced technology development analysis has been explored from the concept, mechanism, technology foresight and multi-level perspective to enrich the related innovation theory. The basic research of policy instrument and mechanism among different interested group is necessary for technology innovation implementation. The basic research has covered the most areas of green technology innovation activities. It involves research of approaches policy instrument and mechanism, models, energy, environment resource industrial, biotechnology, etc. In addition, it is expected more interdisciplinary research to emerge in the future. While some publication level is not high and cannot get into the solid foundation to guide the green practice theoretically. Solving existing problems from

And at last, in Section 4.6, it was drawn that China need more entrepreneur and entrepreneurship. The scope of the different type of entrepreneurs are multiple

technology transfer of the green revolution in a proactive manner.

different disciplines is also one of the directions of future research.

nology development.

ment in China.

**151**

Just seen from the analysis in Section 3.2, compared to the research methods of innovation, the articles with conceptual method account for 49%, and the qualitative method occupies 18%, both achieve 67%. It indicates that the green technology innovation in China is still at a developing stage and the method of model and empirical are not adequate. China's green development is still in the developing stage and need more executions. Though we know that methods should not be ignored with the extension and quick development. In addition, the actual technology adoption needs theoretical support. It assumes that the concepts and theoretical systems driving green technology development research is more welcome. Another impressive feature of these articles is that the green technology research covers 50 subjects within multi-disciplinary fields, while the majority falls on environment science, management, energy and fuels and economics.

The research level indicates that the green technology innovation in China is still under a developing stage based on the data shown in Section 3.3, herein, macroscopic research level gains 54%, mesoscopic research level are keeps 11%, microscopic research level are keeps 35%. This phenomenon reflects that more concrete studies and application from micro perspective are urgently needed, such as the specific technology innovation and application of new technology in the firms or environmental improvement.

The research subject area review in Section 3.4 shows that, the trend of green technology research appears an interdisciplinary research with the themes related to environmental subject, science technology, innovation management, which are accounting for 47.65% of the total. It is worth mentioning that the research articles of the top two areas–environmental sciences ecology and business economics are much more compared with other industries like agriculture and forest.

The keywords cluster analysis in Section 3.5, the technological innovationrelated keywords gains highest occurrence frequency, such as "Innovation", "Technology", "Policy", "Sustainability", "System", "Performance", "Management", "Energy", and "Model" etc. The technological innovation is an important driving force for sustainable development. Various policies and adjusted industrial structures are introduced to promote green development of technologies, improve the efficiency of energy utilization, and support innovative development of green technologies, new and renewable energy, there are the key areas for our researcher to explore and develop.

For the review of publication based on institutions and publications in international journals in Sections 3.6 and 3.7, we can see that the most contributor in green technology innovation are science and technology university or organizations, especial for the universities from "985" and "211" project. Now China is executing a new program of Double First-Rate project<sup>3</sup> among the universities and reallocate the resources based on the contributions of the discipline construction and worldwide reputation. This including the national found support for the outstanding contributor or authors based on the evaluation system.

From the analysis in Section 4, one crucial phenomenon comes to our attention: besides the majority of research themes of "technology adoption and diffusion", green technology innovation cannot be isolated from the policy or regulation regime. The innovation research from multi-perspectives such as social culture,

<sup>3</sup> It refers the world first-class university and the first-class discipline construction.

#### *Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

economic management, engineering, social energy system and etc. are needed for low carbon development in China with green innovation orientation. This opens us a wider consideration that the green technology or is not just a pure technology but a cross functional activity, as a consequence, the technology becomes a low priority compared to the social innovation, such as the saving and efficiency improvement.

The review in Section 4.1 indicates that the effects of different policy implementations have different effects due to the different cost structure and maturity of technology. In fact, the green innovation can be induced by policies. The environmental regulation does the effectiveness on promoting the green technology development.

The finding in Section 4.2 shows: the technology adoption theory with empirical application based is also one of the key research themes. It covers innovative public procurement, dynamic efficiency analysis innovation activities and mechanisms design. People take great efforts on the real actual experiment and achievement in the adoption of green technology, such as the sample survey, case study or fields study with primary data. The typical research articles are influential. Green technology innovation diffusion takes leading the regional economic development. Furthermore, the researchers' focus is within new technology introduction, renewable energy development, new methods, new process improvement and even new conception or culture implantation. This is a new trend of green technology development in China.

In Section 4.3, the realization of technology transfer in green revolution is influenced by many factors. Green technology transfer needs to take full account of the capacity of absorbing countries and governments and the obstacles of intellectual property rights system. The increase of independent innovation capacity in China will play a positive role in technology transfer. From the perspective of historical development, in the environment of rapid improvement of independent innovation ability and intensified international competition, the transfer of green technology in developed countries will have a more positive impact on China's development, though China now is a second position in the world, many core technologies still need to import or transfer from the developed countries. It needs to increase the technology adaptation level and absorptive capacity to accept the technology transfer of the green revolution in a proactive manner.

While for the technological management and capability analysis in Section 4.4, it was sighted that the research of green technology innovation in enterprise management gradually turns from the macro aspect to the micro aspect, but it is not enough. After analyzing the green macro strategy of enterprises, scholars begin to pay more attention to micro factors such as enterprise organization, system design and innovation ability. Therefore, the government policies are becoming an important influencing factor of green innovation development, and the direction of future research.

In Section 4.5, the advanced technology development analysis has been explored from the concept, mechanism, technology foresight and multi-level perspective to enrich the related innovation theory. The basic research of policy instrument and mechanism among different interested group is necessary for technology innovation implementation. The basic research has covered the most areas of green technology innovation activities. It involves research of approaches policy instrument and mechanism, models, energy, environment resource industrial, biotechnology, etc. In addition, it is expected more interdisciplinary research to emerge in the future. While some publication level is not high and cannot get into the solid foundation to guide the green practice theoretically. Solving existing problems from different disciplines is also one of the directions of future research.

And at last, in Section 4.6, it was drawn that China need more entrepreneur and entrepreneurship. The scope of the different type of entrepreneurs are multiple

In the period sequence analysis of the articles, we have initialized that China is acting as an emerging star and its publications obviously higher with the times goes, this is helpful for our researchers to have a full understanding of green development

Just seen from the analysis in Section 3.2, compared to the research methods of innovation, the articles with conceptual method account for 49%, and the qualitative method occupies 18%, both achieve 67%. It indicates that the green technology innovation in China is still at a developing stage and the method of model and empirical are not adequate. China's green development is still in the developing stage and need more executions. Though we know that methods should not be ignored with the extension and quick development. In addition, the actual technology adoption needs theoretical support. It assumes that the concepts and theoretical systems driving green technology development research is more welcome. Another impressive feature of these articles is that the green technology research covers 50 subjects within multi-disciplinary fields, while the majority falls on environment

The research level indicates that the green technology innovation in China is still under a developing stage based on the data shown in Section 3.3, herein, macroscopic research level gains 54%, mesoscopic research level are keeps 11%, microscopic research level are keeps 35%. This phenomenon reflects that more concrete studies and application from micro perspective are urgently needed, such as the specific technology innovation and application of new technology in the firms or

The research subject area review in Section 3.4 shows that, the trend of green technology research appears an interdisciplinary research with the themes related to environmental subject, science technology, innovation management, which are accounting for 47.65% of the total. It is worth mentioning that the research articles of the top two areas–environmental sciences ecology and business economics are

The keywords cluster analysis in Section 3.5, the technological innovationrelated keywords gains highest occurrence frequency, such as "Innovation", "Technology", "Policy", "Sustainability", "System", "Performance", "Management", "Energy", and "Model" etc. The technological innovation is an important driving force for sustainable development. Various policies and adjusted industrial structures are introduced to promote green development of technologies, improve the efficiency of energy utilization, and support innovative development of green technologies, new and renewable energy, there are the key areas for our researcher to

For the review of publication based on institutions and publications in international journals in Sections 3.6 and 3.7, we can see that the most contributor in green technology innovation are science and technology university or organizations, especial for the universities from "985" and "211" project. Now China is executing a new program of Double First-Rate project<sup>3</sup> among the universities and reallocate the resources based on the contributions of the discipline construction and worldwide reputation. This including the national found support for the outstanding

From the analysis in Section 4, one crucial phenomenon comes to our attention: besides the majority of research themes of "technology adoption and diffusion", green technology innovation cannot be isolated from the policy or regulation regime. The innovation research from multi-perspectives such as social culture,

much more compared with other industries like agriculture and forest.

roadmap and trend in China.

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

environmental improvement.

explore and develop.

**150**

science, management, energy and fuels and economics.

contributor or authors based on the evaluation system.

<sup>3</sup> It refers the world first-class university and the first-class discipline construction.

such as the social corporate responsibility, the decision effect of entrepreneurs on enterprise's green technology innovation, and the role of entrepreneurs in green and low carbon economy development or society improvement. But the researches in China is not big, in fact, the enterprise participant is crucial for green development, scholars are encouraging to pay attention on the role of entrepreneurship and education in cultivating entrepreneurs' green entrepreneurship, which is a critical element for sustainability.

effectiveness of entrepreneurs on enterprise's green technology innovation and the role of entrepreneurs becomes a new engine of green development in China.

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

This charter examined the literatures enlisted in the database of CNKI on the topics with regard to green technology innovation from 1994 to 2019 in China. Based on the literature review, some critical discussion and direction are drawn as follows: (1) green technology innovation is getting mature compared to the initial stage 10 years ago. Green technology is becoming a dominated research subject coupled with social energy system innovation contributing to the green and sustainable development. (2) The conceptual and qualitative publications dominate the overall researches; the empirical researches are in a shortage. (3) The research subjects are multi-perspective and multi-disciplinary, covering environment science, management, energy and fuels, economics and social behavior. New vibrancy of advanced theoretical and methodological research is particularly needed, especially for green technology innovation trajectory, performance evaluation, government policy instrument and multi-level cooperation among the participants. (4) The trend of green technology research appears an interdisciplinary research with the themes related to environmental subject, science technology, business economics, engineering and energy & fuels. (5) Different policy implementations have different effects due to the different cost structure and maturity of renewable energy.(6) Green technology innovation cannot be isolated from the policy or regulation regime, and is becoming a new underpin of current sustainable development coupled with social energy system contributing to eliminate the climate change. From the most review of 25 years of the literatures within the domain of and green technology innovation it encourages us to conclude that the research is more diverse, more multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary and multi-focused than the normal

technology innovation, but the publication amount is not big, most of the

researchers in China still focus on the conceptual and qualitative exploration. Green innovation is a complex, multi-level and social constructed process that attract the researcher to perform in the developing fields. It shows strong evidence of the future trend on developing the new resource and renewable sources technology, new vibrancy of theoretical and methodological advance such as green technology innovation trajectory, innovation performance evaluation, government policy instrument and multi-level cooperation among enterprise, government policies etc. New and advanced theory explorations are the research themes of future directions.

This research is supported by the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science Fund (19YJA790037), Planning Project of Jiangxi Province (12th Five-year Plan) (No. 15GL28); the 9th China Postdoctoral Special Foundation (No. 2016T90789) and the Nature Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No.

**5.3 Conclusion**

**Acknowledgements**

2018A030313269).

**153**

#### **5.2 Recommendations for future direction**

Based on the exploration of the content and trend analysis by different categories analysis from the perspectives of period sequence, research methods, research level, research subjects, keywords cluster, institution, authors and themes of articles in Sections 3 and 4, we have witnessed the researchers' contribution in China and are impressed with their consummate methodology and rich theory base. While some research limitations still can be caught due to the regional development differently in China. Herein, we summarize some of our recommendations of the future research directions for our researchers and practitioners as reference and discussion.

First, we would like to see our depth of understanding of green technology innovation and enrich our studies of methodology and theory. We recommend that researchers increase the research volume of theory extension and popularization of green life. Especial for the research from economics and social perspective, the approach in a concept innovation among human and enable of the studies getting deeper.

Second, we recommend our researchers greater use of experiments, field investigation and case study, which are the more solid and concrete foundations for the sustainability in China and would be more convincing for our practitioners.

Third, we propose the cross-level studies moving forward on the green technology promotion, such as the research of cross-culture among different enterprises, regions, organizations and other different stakeholders. The research does not only depend on the scientific research organizations, but mostly comes out of practice.

Fourth, green technology innovation is a global phenomenon with many countries serving as the locations where the technological innovation occurs. Thus, researchers or practitioners are encouraged to use cross-disciplinary teams worldwide to conduct truly international research, such as the global cooperation mechanism, global eco-system research, global cross-cultural studies on inter-action on the sustainable development etc. that means to implement the "Go Out" principles to keep the most advanced and updated research achievements.

Fifth, green technology innovation is a multi-level research and covers across different subjects and multidisciplinary subjects. The research with green technology is not only including the energy saving, renewable, sustainable consumption and transition research, technology development etc. but also including the human or social behavior research, eco-service, green accounting. Herein we also encourage researchers build research teams integrating science, environment, chemistry, energy, fuels, engineering, material science, social science, management, even psychology and other scientists from different fields, who can bring multiple perspectives and methodologies to the foundation of green innovation enhancement.

Finally, from the participant perspective of green technology innovation, government is the key for sustainability development, thus, the government policies are becoming an important influencing factor of green economy development. Moreover, as the main participants, the entrepreneur factors gained lots of scholars' attention as well, the themes of entrepreneurial spirit, corporate responsibility,

effectiveness of entrepreneurs on enterprise's green technology innovation and the role of entrepreneurs becomes a new engine of green development in China.

#### **5.3 Conclusion**

such as the social corporate responsibility, the decision effect of entrepreneurs on enterprise's green technology innovation, and the role of entrepreneurs in green and low carbon economy development or society improvement. But the researches in China is not big, in fact, the enterprise participant is crucial for green development, scholars are encouraging to pay attention on the role of entrepreneurship and education in cultivating entrepreneurs' green entrepreneurship, which is a critical

Based on the exploration of the content and trend analysis by different categories analysis from the perspectives of period sequence, research methods, research level, research subjects, keywords cluster, institution, authors and themes of articles in Sections 3 and 4, we have witnessed the researchers' contribution in China and are impressed with their consummate methodology and rich theory base. While some research limitations still can be caught due to the regional development differently in China. Herein, we summarize some of our recommendations of the future research directions for our researchers and practitioners as reference and

First, we would like to see our depth of understanding of green technology innovation and enrich our studies of methodology and theory. We recommend that researchers increase the research volume of theory extension and popularization of green life. Especial for the research from economics and social perspective, the approach in a concept innovation among human and enable of the studies getting

Second, we recommend our researchers greater use of experiments, field investigation and case study, which are the more solid and concrete foundations for the sustainability in China and would be more convincing for our practitioners.

Third, we propose the cross-level studies moving forward on the green technology promotion, such as the research of cross-culture among different enterprises, regions, organizations and other different stakeholders. The research does not only depend on the scientific research organizations, but mostly comes out of practice. Fourth, green technology innovation is a global phenomenon with many countries serving as the locations where the technological innovation occurs. Thus, researchers or practitioners are encouraged to use cross-disciplinary teams worldwide to conduct truly international research, such as the global cooperation mechanism, global eco-system research, global cross-cultural studies on inter-action on the sustainable development etc. that means to implement the "Go Out" principles

Fifth, green technology innovation is a multi-level research and covers across different subjects and multidisciplinary subjects. The research with green technology is not only including the energy saving, renewable, sustainable consumption and transition research, technology development etc. but also including the human or social behavior research, eco-service, green accounting. Herein we also encourage researchers build research teams integrating science, environment, chemistry, energy, fuels, engineering, material science, social science, management, even psychology and other scientists from different fields, who can bring multiple perspectives and methodologies to the foundation of green innovation enhancement.

Finally, from the participant perspective of green technology innovation, government is the key for sustainability development, thus, the government policies are becoming an important influencing factor of green economy development. Moreover, as the main participants, the entrepreneur factors gained lots of scholars' attention as well, the themes of entrepreneurial spirit, corporate responsibility,

to keep the most advanced and updated research achievements.

element for sustainability.

discussion.

deeper.

**152**

**5.2 Recommendations for future direction**

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

This charter examined the literatures enlisted in the database of CNKI on the topics with regard to green technology innovation from 1994 to 2019 in China. Based on the literature review, some critical discussion and direction are drawn as follows: (1) green technology innovation is getting mature compared to the initial stage 10 years ago. Green technology is becoming a dominated research subject coupled with social energy system innovation contributing to the green and sustainable development. (2) The conceptual and qualitative publications dominate the overall researches; the empirical researches are in a shortage. (3) The research subjects are multi-perspective and multi-disciplinary, covering environment science, management, energy and fuels, economics and social behavior. New vibrancy of advanced theoretical and methodological research is particularly needed, especially for green technology innovation trajectory, performance evaluation, government policy instrument and multi-level cooperation among the participants. (4) The trend of green technology research appears an interdisciplinary research with the themes related to environmental subject, science technology, business economics, engineering and energy & fuels. (5) Different policy implementations have different effects due to the different cost structure and maturity of renewable energy.(6) Green technology innovation cannot be isolated from the policy or regulation regime, and is becoming a new underpin of current sustainable development coupled with social energy system contributing to eliminate the climate change.

From the most review of 25 years of the literatures within the domain of and green technology innovation it encourages us to conclude that the research is more diverse, more multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary and multi-focused than the normal technology innovation, but the publication amount is not big, most of the researchers in China still focus on the conceptual and qualitative exploration. Green innovation is a complex, multi-level and social constructed process that attract the researcher to perform in the developing fields. It shows strong evidence of the future trend on developing the new resource and renewable sources technology, new vibrancy of theoretical and methodological advance such as green technology innovation trajectory, innovation performance evaluation, government policy instrument and multi-level cooperation among enterprise, government policies etc. New and advanced theory explorations are the research themes of future directions.

#### **Acknowledgements**

This research is supported by the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science Fund (19YJA790037), Planning Project of Jiangxi Province (12th Five-year Plan) (No. 15GL28); the 9th China Postdoctoral Special Foundation (No. 2016T90789) and the Nature Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2018A030313269).

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

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*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application*

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### **Author details**

Xiaodong Lai School of Economic and Management, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

\*Address all correspondence to: tylerlai@126.com

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Green Technology Innovations Development in China: Trend and Application DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89599*

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[3] Lv Y, Wang WQ. Research of enterprise' green technology innovation. Scientific Management Research. 1994; **12**(04):46-48

[4] Zhang JX, Zhu L. Research on technological innovation efficiency of industrial enterprises based on green growth of regions in China. The Journal of Quantitative & Technical Economics. 2012;**29**(02):113-125

[5] Xu SC, He ZX, Long RY. The effects of environmental regulations on enterprise green technology innovation. Science Research Management. 2012; **33**(06):67-74

[6] Zhang Q, Qu SY. Research on dynamic game between government and corporation environmental behavior and optimal strategies based on environmental regulation. Forecast. 2013;**32**(04):35-40

[7] Qian L, Xiao RQ, Chen ZW. Research on the industrial enterprise's technology efficiency and regional disparities in China-based on the theory of metafrontier and DEA model. Economic Theory and Business Management. 2015;(01):26-43

[8] Luo LW, Liang SR. Green technology innovation efficiency and factor decomposition of China's industrial enterprises. China Population,

Resources and Environment. 2016; **26**(09):149-157

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**Author details**

Guangzhou, China

School of Economic and Management, South China Normal University,

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

\*Address all correspondence to: tylerlai@126.com

provided the original work is properly cited.

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[126] Li B. Environmental risks and prevention and control measures to undertake industrial transfer in the central and western regions. Academic Journal of Zhongzhou. 2015;**10**:38-42

[127] Chen F, Xie HT. Risk analysis of construction technology innovation by Bayesian networks model-a case study of green building innovation project.

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[128] Fang SG. The construction of ecological civilization should be alert to the anti-ecological risk of technology. Gansu Theory Research. 2013;**04**:32-37

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[130] Bi KX, Zhu J, Feng YJ. On the index system to measure product innovation of small and medium enterprises. China

[131] Zhu YY, Ma ZQ, Chen YQ. Multilevel fuzzy comprehensive evaluation on enterprise's green technology innovation environment. Science & Technology Progress and Policy. 2010;

[132] Sun QY, Cao YK. An evaluation of enterprise green technology innovation ability based on extension theory. Science and Technology Management

Research. 2016;**36**(21):62-67

[133] Xie JM, Tang XW, Shao YF. Research on stratified cluster evaluation

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Soft Science. 2002;**9**:56-59

**27**(09):102-105

[118] Zhen HZ. Research on the mechanism of green technology innovation and diffusion dynamics under regulatory conditions in Chinese enterprises. Scientific Management Research. 2018, 2016;**34**(5):77-88

[119] Liu YQ, Quan Q, Zhu J, Wang F. Green technology innovation, industrial agglomeration and ecological efficiencya case study of urban agglomerations on Yangtze River economic belt. Resources and Environment in the Yangtze Basin.

[120] Yang PY, Chen JJ. Research on industrial agglomeration, green development and governance system. Reform of Economic System. 2018;(05):

[121] Norberg-Bohm V. Stimulating 'green' technological innovation: An

mechanisms. Policy Sciences. 1999;**32**:1

[122] Yu FF. Green innovation behavior among housing developers: Impact of portfolio depth and scope. Science of Science and Management of S & T.

[123] Zhang Z, Sun BW. The influence mechanism and empirical study on the efficiency of green growth in ecological economic belt of Han River in Hubei province: Based on the perspective of economic-social-environmentinnovation subsystem. Ecological Economy. 2018;**34**(09):67-74

[124] Guo JD, Yang YQ, Ma ZC.

Constraint and incentive mechanism for business green technology innovation. Science and Technology Management Research. 2018;**38**(20):249-252

analysis of alternative policy

2015;**36**(05):13-23

**162**

2018;**20**(01):34-44

2018;**27**(11):2395-2406

93-100

[135] Huang Q, Miao JJ, Li JY, Wang WH. Research on the spatial spillover effect of industrial enterprises' technology innovation efficiency based on green growth. Reform of Economic System. 2015;**04**:109-115

[136] Li YS, Cheng LM, Li Y. Ecologicaleconomic efficiency evaluation of green technology innovation in strategic emerging industries based on entropy weighted TOPSIS method. Ecological Indicators. 2017;**73**:554-558

[137] Zhang HC, Li F, Zhang JP. Technological innovation efficiency evaluation of industrial enterprises in resource regions based on green growth perspective. Science and Technology Management Research. 2017;**37**(08): 69-76

[138] Jiang WB, Chai HQ, Shao J, Feng TW. Green entrepreneurial orientation for enhancing firm performance: A dynamic capability perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2018;**198**:1311-1323. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.104

[139] Xie XB, Wu Y, Feng ZL, Hao ZT. Investigation of green behavior of resource-based enterprise in China. China Population, Resources and Environment. 2015;**25**(06):5-11

**165**

**Chapter 10**

**Abstract**

**1. Introduction**

Challenges

*Samuel Adams and William Asante*

to make this venture difficult but are surmountable.

energy, energy transition, carbon dioxide emissions

Politics of Renewable Energy in

Energy transition discussions have centered on the technical, economic, and policy aspects of energy transitions. Despite this, the political dynamics have received less attention. It is suggested that since energy policy change threaten incumbent industries and impose substantial costs, enacting and sustaining policies require considerable political support. Even though it is widely acknowledged that barriers to energy transition are primarily political than technical, there is a lack of cohesive literature on the politics that drive, constrain, and shape renewable energy regulation or policy. This gap motivates this study. Adopting a desk research methodology and arguing from the lens of Kingdon's multiple streams framework, the study found among others that the streams of problem, politics and policy shows enough prospects to be coupled for Africa to make a serious consideration on its renewable energy capacity. However, a number of obstacles were also identified

**Keywords:** renewable energy, multiple streams framework, Africa, politics, cleaner

 *"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much"* Quote attributed to Helen Keller, American Writer and Social Activist.

It is strongly believed that the United Nations (UN) member states were thinking just like Keller when they came up with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a means of combining their efforts to confront global developmental challenges of droughts, famine, poverty, climate change, and the likes. Following this, states are expected to "act locally" to ensure that the global SDG agenda is achieved by 2030. Since the discussion here focuses on renewable energy, rehashing Goal 7 of the SDGs is appropriate and situates this discussion in its proper context. The Goal 7 provides that member states should ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all [1]. These include but not limited to ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services; increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix; double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency; enhance international cooperation

Africa: Nature, Prospects, and

#### **Chapter 10**

## Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges

*Samuel Adams and William Asante*

#### **Abstract**

Energy transition discussions have centered on the technical, economic, and policy aspects of energy transitions. Despite this, the political dynamics have received less attention. It is suggested that since energy policy change threaten incumbent industries and impose substantial costs, enacting and sustaining policies require considerable political support. Even though it is widely acknowledged that barriers to energy transition are primarily political than technical, there is a lack of cohesive literature on the politics that drive, constrain, and shape renewable energy regulation or policy. This gap motivates this study. Adopting a desk research methodology and arguing from the lens of Kingdon's multiple streams framework, the study found among others that the streams of problem, politics and policy shows enough prospects to be coupled for Africa to make a serious consideration on its renewable energy capacity. However, a number of obstacles were also identified to make this venture difficult but are surmountable.

**Keywords:** renewable energy, multiple streams framework, Africa, politics, cleaner energy, energy transition, carbon dioxide emissions

#### **1. Introduction**

 *"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much"* Quote attributed to Helen Keller, American Writer and Social Activist.

It is strongly believed that the United Nations (UN) member states were thinking just like Keller when they came up with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a means of combining their efforts to confront global developmental challenges of droughts, famine, poverty, climate change, and the likes. Following this, states are expected to "act locally" to ensure that the global SDG agenda is achieved by 2030. Since the discussion here focuses on renewable energy, rehashing Goal 7 of the SDGs is appropriate and situates this discussion in its proper context. The Goal 7 provides that member states should ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all [1]. These include but not limited to ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services; increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix; double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency; enhance international cooperation

to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology. The above targets consistently mention and encourage cleaner energy which makes the discussion on renewable energy timely and relevant.

Furthermore, the renewables agenda has become necessary because of global warming evidenced through storms and ice melts, droughts and hunger, unrest and migration [2]. This realization has led to a growing consensus directed at the transition to renewable energy systems, which has come to be known as a process of fuel substitution, a crucial way to addressing the climate crisis [2]. Renewable energy may refer to a form of energy that when used replaces itself and can last indefinitely when well-managed. The principal types of renewable energy consist of solar, thermal, photovoltaics, bioenergy, hydro, tidal, wind, wave, and geothermal [3].

The literature on renewable energy have mostly centered on three key academic fields i.e. political science, policy studies and energy transitions. However, Hughes and Lipsky [4] acknowledge that in political science the subfield of energy politics is "relatively underdeveloped." They continue that most of the studies fall within the 1970s and 1980s with prime focus on international political economy and oil geopolitics. It is in recent times that there is a gradual shift with new studies relating renewable energy to public opinion [5–7], electoral dynamics [8], coalitional politics [9], and green industrial constituencies [10]. Also, in the policy literature, scholars analyze renewable energy policymaking with theories such as the Multiple Streams Model, Punctuated Equilibrium theory and the Advocacy Coalition Framework. These studies emphasize windows of opportunity for policy change, especially following acute "focusing events" such as oil and nuclear crises [11–15]. The energy transition literature has centered on the technical, economic, and policy aspects of energy transitions [16, 17] with the political dynamics receiving less attention [4, 6]. It is suggested that since energy policy change threaten incumbent industries and impose substantial costs [18], enacting and sustaining policies require considerable political support. Even though it is widely acknowledged that barriers to energy transition are primarily political, there is a lack of cohesive literature on the politics that drive, constrain, and shape renewable energy policy particularly in developing countries [8, 19]. This study builds on the energy transition literature by exploring first, the energy situation in Africa, second, the prospects and challenges from transitioning from non-renewable to renewable, and third, the appropriate lessons that can be drawn to help Africa attain the SDG goal 7. The uniqueness of this study aside the above, is the application of Kingdon's multiple streams framework (MSF) as an analytical lens at the continental level.

By way of organization, the theoretical framework follows this discussion, followed by the methodology; then, the nature of energy situation in African is also discussed. After this, the discussion on whether conditions are ripe for the transition follows, and then a conclusion is drawn to end the chapter outlining some policy implications for the future.

#### **2. Theoretical framework: multiple streams approach**

The multiple streams framework (MSF) is acknowledged to be the handy work of John W. Kingdon, who explains how ideas come into being. In other words what makes important people pay attention to one subject rather than another, how their agendas change from time to time, and how they narrow their choices from a larger set of alternatives to very few [20–23]. These are the issues that the MSF seeks to explain. MSF views the policy process as composed of three streams of actors and processes. First, a problem stream consists of data about various problems

**167**

the model.

**Figure 1.**

**3. Methodology**

the internet for data or information.

*Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges*

and the proponents of various problem definitions. It may also consist of perceptions, opinions, and attitudes held by various members of the public and policy communities [20, 24]. Second, a policy stream which involves the proponents of solutions to policy problems that originate with communities of policy makers, experts and lobby groups. It is important to mention that the policy stream carries recommendations from researchers, advocates, analysts, who use their expertise to propose prospective solutions to them [24–26]. Third, a politics stream consists of elections and elected officials [20–23]. The politics stream also refers to factors such as changes in government, legislative turnover and fluctuations in public opinion. It must be mentioned that the political stream is often associated with contextual attributes such as the composition of ideas and values comprising national "moods" and the power shifts produced by legislative and executive turnover following events such as elections and cabinet shuffles that rotate the composition of policymakers and affect important events through the composition of political and

According to Kingdon [21], the streams normally operate independently of each other, except when a "window of opportunity" permits policy entrepreneurs to couple the various streams. The success of the policy entrepreneurs in the coupling venture may result in a major policy change [20, 24, 27]. These policy entrepreneurs are vested stakeholders who strategically engage with the streams to open or seize windows of opportunities to advance their favored solutions [23]. In this framework, it is observed that policy development towards addressing a socio-economic problem does not occur automatically; rather, it emerges from the complex interaction and intersection of the three streams, which leads to certain issues being taken up by governments [24]. In this study we seek to explore the politics, problem and policy streams in the renewable energy sector of Africa and whether these streams are being strategically linked to enhance the acceptance of governments or policy makers. **Figure 1** illustrates

This study adopts a desk research methodology or desktop qualitative descriptive method. Desk research refers to the use of secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. To most people it suggests published reports and statistics. In the context of this paper, the term is widened to include all sources of information that do not involve a field survey. These include searching libraries and

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89019*

*Multiple Streams Framework. Source: Zahariadis [25].*

legislative timetables [24, 27].

*Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89019*

**Figure 1.**

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

renewable energy timely and relevant.

to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology. The above targets consistently mention and encourage cleaner energy which makes the discussion on

Furthermore, the renewables agenda has become necessary because of global warming evidenced through storms and ice melts, droughts and hunger, unrest and migration [2]. This realization has led to a growing consensus directed at the transition to renewable energy systems, which has come to be known as a process of fuel substitution, a crucial way to addressing the climate crisis [2]. Renewable energy may refer to a form of energy that when used replaces itself and can last indefinitely when well-managed. The principal types of renewable energy consist of solar, thermal, photovoltaics, bioenergy, hydro, tidal, wind, wave, and geothermal [3]. The literature on renewable energy have mostly centered on three key academic fields i.e. political science, policy studies and energy transitions. However, Hughes and Lipsky [4] acknowledge that in political science the subfield of energy politics is "relatively underdeveloped." They continue that most of the studies fall within the 1970s and 1980s with prime focus on international political economy and oil geopolitics. It is in recent times that there is a gradual shift with new studies relating renewable energy to public opinion [5–7], electoral dynamics [8], coalitional politics [9], and green industrial constituencies [10]. Also, in the policy literature, scholars analyze renewable energy policymaking with theories such as the Multiple Streams Model, Punctuated Equilibrium theory and the Advocacy Coalition Framework. These studies emphasize windows of opportunity for policy change, especially following acute "focusing events" such as oil and nuclear crises [11–15]. The energy transition literature has centered on the technical, economic, and policy aspects of energy transitions [16, 17] with the political dynamics receiving less attention [4, 6]. It is suggested that since energy policy change threaten incumbent industries and impose substantial costs [18], enacting and sustaining policies require considerable political support. Even though it is widely acknowledged that barriers to energy transition are primarily political, there is a lack of cohesive literature on the politics that drive, constrain, and shape renewable energy policy particularly in developing countries [8, 19]. This study builds on the energy transition literature by exploring first, the energy situation in Africa, second, the prospects and challenges from transitioning from non-renewable to renewable, and third, the appropriate lessons that can be drawn to help Africa attain the SDG goal 7. The uniqueness of this study aside the above, is the application of Kingdon's multiple streams framework (MSF) as an analytical

By way of organization, the theoretical framework follows this discussion, followed by the methodology; then, the nature of energy situation in African is also discussed. After this, the discussion on whether conditions are ripe for the transition follows, and then a conclusion is drawn to end the chapter outlining some

The multiple streams framework (MSF) is acknowledged to be the handy work of John W. Kingdon, who explains how ideas come into being. In other words what makes important people pay attention to one subject rather than another, how their agendas change from time to time, and how they narrow their choices from a larger set of alternatives to very few [20–23]. These are the issues that the MSF seeks to explain. MSF views the policy process as composed of three streams of actors and processes. First, a problem stream consists of data about various problems

**2. Theoretical framework: multiple streams approach**

**166**

lens at the continental level.

policy implications for the future.

*Multiple Streams Framework. Source: Zahariadis [25].*

and the proponents of various problem definitions. It may also consist of perceptions, opinions, and attitudes held by various members of the public and policy communities [20, 24]. Second, a policy stream which involves the proponents of solutions to policy problems that originate with communities of policy makers, experts and lobby groups. It is important to mention that the policy stream carries recommendations from researchers, advocates, analysts, who use their expertise to propose prospective solutions to them [24–26]. Third, a politics stream consists of elections and elected officials [20–23]. The politics stream also refers to factors such as changes in government, legislative turnover and fluctuations in public opinion. It must be mentioned that the political stream is often associated with contextual attributes such as the composition of ideas and values comprising national "moods" and the power shifts produced by legislative and executive turnover following events such as elections and cabinet shuffles that rotate the composition of policymakers and affect important events through the composition of political and legislative timetables [24, 27].

According to Kingdon [21], the streams normally operate independently of each other, except when a "window of opportunity" permits policy entrepreneurs to couple the various streams. The success of the policy entrepreneurs in the coupling venture may result in a major policy change [20, 24, 27]. These policy entrepreneurs are vested stakeholders who strategically engage with the streams to open or seize windows of opportunities to advance their favored solutions [23]. In this framework, it is observed that policy development towards addressing a socio-economic problem does not occur automatically; rather, it emerges from the complex interaction and intersection of the three streams, which leads to certain issues being taken up by governments [24]. In this study we seek to explore the politics, problem and policy streams in the renewable energy sector of Africa and whether these streams are being strategically linked to enhance the acceptance of governments or policy makers. **Figure 1** illustrates the model.

#### **3. Methodology**

This study adopts a desk research methodology or desktop qualitative descriptive method. Desk research refers to the use of secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. To most people it suggests published reports and statistics. In the context of this paper, the term is widened to include all sources of information that do not involve a field survey. These include searching libraries and the internet for data or information.

**Data Sources:** This paper benefitted extensively from text data on energy situation in SSA countries, renewable energy and its potential in Africa and other jurisdictions outside of Africa on the internet and in the libraries of University of Ghana and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

**Data Analysis:** The information from the various sources of data were thoroughly studied and analyzed. Analysis was done with the objectives of the study at the background alongside the literature review.

#### **4. The Africa energy situation**

The Organization of African Unity (OAU) which is currently known as the African Union (AU) established the African Energy Commission (AFREC) through the Convention of the African Energy Commission (CAEC) adopted in Lusaka, Zambia, on 11 July 2001 and entered into force on 13 December 2006. After the Convention's adoption, it was expected that all member countries of the AU will be part of it, but as at January 14, 2019, only 35 countries had consented to its enforcement. Article 4 of the CAEC indicates that the AFREC is expected to map out energy development policies, strategies and plans based on sub-regional, regional and continental development priorities and recommend their implementation in member countries. This energy commission architecture is hoped to propel Africa's energy situation to its peak but the continent still records the lowest share in terms of access to power by its citizens. World Bank [28] records that the percentage of SSA population with access to electricity is pegged at approximately 44.6%, which suggests that a lot still needs to be done for the people of Africa. It is observed that Africa's energy sector is dominated by fossil fuels, hydro, nuclear and biomass (see **Table 1**).

Further, it must be pointed out that traditional biomass energy use (wood, charcoal, agricultural residues and animal waste) and fossil fuels contribute to respiratory illnesses in highland areas of sub-Saharan Africa because of the excess CO2 emissions [30]. This however calls for the need to look at other sources of clean energy supply. Tables below show the renewable energy potential of African countries (see **Tables 2** and **3**). Additionally, various types of renewable energy have been identified to exist and can be tapped by African countries, these include geothermal, hydropower, wind energy, solar and bioenergy. It must be pointed out that some countries have already taken the lead in tapping these forms of renewable energy (see **Table 4**).


**169**

**Table 3.**

**5. Findings and discussion**

*Renewable energy production (GWh) (leading African countries).*

*Source: Extracted from IRENA [31].*

This section of the chapter discusses the MSF perspective with respect to the identified constructs of the framework; problem stream, policy stream, politics stream, policy entrepreneurs and policy window. This is followed by an attempt

*Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges*

**Country 2009 (MW) 2018 (MW)** Congo DR 2514 2750 Egypt 3354 4813 Ethiopia 1443 4326 Ghana 1187 1659 Morocco 1520 3263 Mozambique 2198 2235 Nigeria 2087 2143 Sudan 1681 2136 Zambia 1723 2446

**Country 2009 (GWh) 2017 (GWh)** Angola 3308 7897 Cameroon 4017 5106 Congo DR 7940 9287 Cote D'Ivoire 2132 2054 Egypt 15942 15957 Ethiopia 3593 12585 Ghana 6893 5672 Kenya 3923 8407 Malawi 1813 1915 Morocco 2976 4706 Mozambique 16994 14127 Namibia 1405 1526 Nigeria 7454 7803 South Africa 1648 10453 Sudan 3379 9484 Tanzania 2738 2611 Uganda 1458 3745 Zambia 10604 12537 Zimbabwe 5517 4214

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89019*

*Source: Extracted from IRENA [31].*

*Renewable energy capacity (MW) (leading African countries).*

**Table 2.**

#### **Table 1.**

*Summary of Africa's Total Energy Production (Ktoe) 2000–2015.*

## *Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89019* **Country 2009 (MW) 2018 (MW)** Congo DR 2514 2750


*Source: Extracted from IRENA [31].*

#### **Table 2.**

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

the background alongside the literature review.

**4. The Africa energy situation**

and biomass (see **Table 1**).

energy (see **Table 4**).

*Source: Extracted from AFREC [29].*

*Summary of Africa's Total Energy Production (Ktoe) 2000–2015.*

(GIMPA).

**Data Sources:** This paper benefitted extensively from text data on energy situation in SSA countries, renewable energy and its potential in Africa and other jurisdictions outside of Africa on the internet and in the libraries of University of Ghana and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration

**Data Analysis:** The information from the various sources of data were thoroughly studied and analyzed. Analysis was done with the objectives of the study at

The Organization of African Unity (OAU) which is currently known as the African Union (AU) established the African Energy Commission (AFREC) through the Convention of the African Energy Commission (CAEC) adopted in Lusaka, Zambia, on 11 July 2001 and entered into force on 13 December 2006. After the Convention's adoption, it was expected that all member countries of the AU will be part of it, but as at January 14, 2019, only 35 countries had consented to its enforcement. Article 4 of the CAEC indicates that the AFREC is expected to map out energy development policies, strategies and plans based on sub-regional, regional and continental development priorities and recommend their implementation in member countries. This energy commission architecture is hoped to propel Africa's energy situation to its peak but the continent still records the lowest share in terms of access to power by its citizens. World Bank [28] records that the percentage of SSA population with access to electricity is pegged at approximately 44.6%, which suggests that a lot still needs to be done for the people of Africa. It is observed that Africa's energy sector is dominated by fossil fuels, hydro, nuclear

Further, it must be pointed out that traditional biomass energy use (wood, charcoal, agricultural residues and animal waste) and fossil fuels contribute to respiratory illnesses in highland areas of sub-Saharan Africa because of the excess CO2 emissions [30]. This however calls for the need to look at other sources of clean energy supply. Tables below show the renewable energy potential of African countries (see **Tables 2** and **3**). Additionally, various types of renewable energy have been identified to exist and can be tapped by African countries, these include geothermal, hydropower, wind energy, solar and bioenergy. It must be pointed out that some countries have already taken the lead in tapping these forms of renewable

**Category 2000 2005 2010 2015** Production of electricity from biofuels and waste 135 163 187 349 Production of electricity from fossil fuels 29,921 37,321 44,975 62,212 Production of nuclear electricity 1,119 971 1,101 1,221 Production of hydro electricity 6,607 8,107 9,738 12,495 Production of geothermal electricity 37 77 126 329 Production of electricity from solar, wind, etc. 20 128 326 1,086

**168**

**Table 1.**

*Renewable energy capacity (MW) (leading African countries).*


#### **Table 3.**

*Renewable energy production (GWh) (leading African countries).*

#### **5. Findings and discussion**

This section of the chapter discusses the MSF perspective with respect to the identified constructs of the framework; problem stream, policy stream, politics stream, policy entrepreneurs and policy window. This is followed by an attempt


#### **Table 4.**

*Types of renewable energy capacity and production in Africa.*

to discuss the extent to which the three streams are being coupled for an effective energy transition on the African continent.

#### **5.1 Problem stream**

Proponents of the MSF are of the view that for a policy to be considered, it should be politically and technically feasible. Additionally, its capacity to address the corresponding problem that it is expected to address should be relevant. MSF Proponents have pointed out clearly that the problem stream may refer to policy problems in society that potentially require attention [22–25]. In the case of this study, it is observed that Africa's economy is growing at unprecedented rate, and one of the core challenges associated with this economic growth is related to energy constraints. Specifically, economic growth, changing lifestyles and the need for reliable modern energy access require energy supply to be at least doubled by 2030 [32]. An investment of about US\$43–55 billion per year is needed until 2030–2040 to meet demand and provide universal access to electricity. However, the present investment situation in the energy sector is about US\$8–9.2 billion which is woefully inadequate [33]. Furthermore, it is estimated that over 645 million people do not have access to electricity. Again, out of the world's 20 countries with the least access to electricity, 13 can be found in Africa, including Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, (the former) Sudan, Mozambique, Madagascar, Niger, Malawi, Burkina Faso, and Angola [33]. This has however heightened the need to focus on tapping the enormous renewable energy potential in Africa that is untapped [33].

Again, energy security is a socio-economic and political factor that contributes to sustainable development (SD) in any nation. Currently, the world is dominated by the usage of non-renewable energy such as fossil fuels. The use of non-renewable energy leads to the emission of large amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which is considered to be the principal cause of climate change. Accordingly, the use of clean energy sources to reduce the release of carbon emissions is a key goal in reducing global warming and promoting sustainable development [33–36].

**171**

*Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges*

effort but more attention should be geared toward that direction.

The policy stream in the view of MSF proponents pertains to the many potential

policy solutions that originate with communities of policy makers, experts and lobby groups. This may also include recommendations from researchers, advocates, analysts, and others in a policy community examining problems and using their (sometimes self-proclaimed) expertise to propose prospective solutions to them [24, 37, 38]. Many international energy organizations and researchers have proposed tapping the untapped African renewable resources in confronting the continent's energy challenge [32, 33, 36]. **Table 2** shows African countries that have renewable capacity of 1000 MW and above. Additionally, **Table 4** shows five key renewable energy sources such as geothermal, hydropower, wind, solar and bioenergy alongside corresponding African countries with capacity to be tapped. It is however important to state that some African countries have already begun this

The third of the streams according to proponents of the MSF is the politics stream. Here, emphasis is placed on factors such as changes in government, legislative turnover following events such as elections and cabinet shuffles that rotate the composition of policy makers and fluctuations in public opinion [24, 25]. Although efforts were made in the early 2000s at the continental level with the adoption of the Convention of African Energy Commission, the renewables agenda has gained momentum in recent times due to the adoption of the AU Agenda 2063. This agenda is a shared framework for inclusive growth and sustainable development for Africa to be realized in the next fifty years. A new crop of African leaders have realized that African problems can only be solved by Africans, and so they agreed in 2013 through the 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration during the commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to bring forth the Agenda 2063 which consist of seven aspirations [39]. This is to guide individual member states in their own development planning. This has also led to some reforms in the AU especially the shift to self-financing of the AU policies and

Policy entrepreneurs are vested stakeholders who strategically engage with the streams to open or seize windows of opportunities to advance their favored solutions [23]. The literature reveals that various bodies within member countries are in charge of energy in general and renewable energy to be specific [30, 41]. Aside the AFREC which is supposed to carry out research activities and inform policy directions of AU member states in the energy sector, many other international institutions and NGOs either directly or indirectly influence Africa's energy governance with their activities. Some of these actors include the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the World Bank, the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC), the OPEC, African Development Bank, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) and the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) [42]. Some of the strategies adopted by these actors include for example the World Bank and AfDB may

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89019*

**5.2 Policy stream**

**5.3 Politics stream**

programs [40].

**5.4 Policy entrepreneurs**

#### **5.2 Policy stream**

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

Hydropower Congo DR, Egypt, Ethiopia,

Zambia

Wind Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco,

Solar Algeria, Egypt, Morocco,

Bioenergy Eswatini, Ethiopia, South

**Leading African countries with capacity (MW)**

Ghana, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan,

Geothermal Ethiopia, Kenya Kenya

South Africa, Tunisia.

Reunion, South Africa

Africa, Sudan, Zimbabwe

**Renewable energy**

energy transition on the African continent.

*Types of renewable energy capacity and production in Africa.*

tial in Africa that is untapped [33].

development [33–36].

**5.1 Problem stream**

**Table 4.**

*Source: Extracted from IRENA [31].*

to discuss the extent to which the three streams are being coupled for an effective

Zimbabwe

**Leading African countries in production (GWh)**

Angola, Cameroon, Congo DR, Cote D'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, South Africa, Tunisia.

Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Reunion, South Africa

Angola, Egypt, Eswatini, Kenya, Mauritius, Reunion, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda,

Proponents of the MSF are of the view that for a policy to be considered, it should be politically and technically feasible. Additionally, its capacity to address the corresponding problem that it is expected to address should be relevant. MSF Proponents have pointed out clearly that the problem stream may refer to policy problems in society that potentially require attention [22–25]. In the case of this study, it is observed that Africa's economy is growing at unprecedented rate, and one of the core challenges associated with this economic growth is related to energy constraints. Specifically, economic growth, changing lifestyles and the need for reliable modern energy access require energy supply to be at least doubled by 2030 [32]. An investment of about US\$43–55 billion per year is needed until 2030–2040 to meet demand and provide universal access to electricity. However, the present investment situation in the energy sector is about US\$8–9.2 billion which is woefully inadequate [33]. Furthermore, it is estimated that over 645 million people do not have access to electricity. Again, out of the world's 20 countries with the least access to electricity, 13 can be found in Africa, including Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, (the former) Sudan, Mozambique, Madagascar, Niger, Malawi, Burkina Faso, and Angola [33]. This has however heightened the need to focus on tapping the enormous renewable energy poten-

Again, energy security is a socio-economic and political factor that contributes to sustainable development (SD) in any nation. Currently, the world is dominated by the usage of non-renewable energy such as fossil fuels. The use of non-renewable energy leads to the emission of large amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which is considered to be the principal cause of climate change. Accordingly, the use of clean energy sources to reduce the release of carbon emissions is a key goal in reducing global warming and promoting sustainable

**170**

The policy stream in the view of MSF proponents pertains to the many potential policy solutions that originate with communities of policy makers, experts and lobby groups. This may also include recommendations from researchers, advocates, analysts, and others in a policy community examining problems and using their (sometimes self-proclaimed) expertise to propose prospective solutions to them [24, 37, 38]. Many international energy organizations and researchers have proposed tapping the untapped African renewable resources in confronting the continent's energy challenge [32, 33, 36]. **Table 2** shows African countries that have renewable capacity of 1000 MW and above. Additionally, **Table 4** shows five key renewable energy sources such as geothermal, hydropower, wind, solar and bioenergy alongside corresponding African countries with capacity to be tapped. It is however important to state that some African countries have already begun this effort but more attention should be geared toward that direction.

#### **5.3 Politics stream**

The third of the streams according to proponents of the MSF is the politics stream. Here, emphasis is placed on factors such as changes in government, legislative turnover following events such as elections and cabinet shuffles that rotate the composition of policy makers and fluctuations in public opinion [24, 25]. Although efforts were made in the early 2000s at the continental level with the adoption of the Convention of African Energy Commission, the renewables agenda has gained momentum in recent times due to the adoption of the AU Agenda 2063. This agenda is a shared framework for inclusive growth and sustainable development for Africa to be realized in the next fifty years. A new crop of African leaders have realized that African problems can only be solved by Africans, and so they agreed in 2013 through the 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration during the commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to bring forth the Agenda 2063 which consist of seven aspirations [39]. This is to guide individual member states in their own development planning. This has also led to some reforms in the AU especially the shift to self-financing of the AU policies and programs [40].

#### **5.4 Policy entrepreneurs**

Policy entrepreneurs are vested stakeholders who strategically engage with the streams to open or seize windows of opportunities to advance their favored solutions [23]. The literature reveals that various bodies within member countries are in charge of energy in general and renewable energy to be specific [30, 41]. Aside the AFREC which is supposed to carry out research activities and inform policy directions of AU member states in the energy sector, many other international institutions and NGOs either directly or indirectly influence Africa's energy governance with their activities. Some of these actors include the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the World Bank, the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC), the OPEC, African Development Bank, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) and the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) [42]. Some of the strategies adopted by these actors include for example the World Bank and AfDB may

target their lending activities to projects related to energy or renewable energy. The IRENA on the other hand may adopt innovative strategies to promote renewable energy by concentrating on a narrowly defined set of goals with regards to the deployment of renewables and additionally provide epistemic services as well [42]. The study shows that the policy entrepreneurs to push the renewable energy agenda are vast and wide, with some of them already in the process (WB, AfDB, IRENA, UNEP, and AFREC).

#### **5.5 Policy windows**

MSF proponents are of the view that policy windows present opportunities that pave the way for policy entrepreneurs to push their policy ideas to the policy makers/governments [24]. The AU Agenda 2063 is one of the continental policy windows with regards to the adoption of a renewable energy policy. The first aspiration of Agenda 2063 posits "a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development" [39]. It could be argued that this aspiration opens doors to discuss issues of renewable energy which could aid in inclusive growth and sustainable development. Another important policy window is the rise in population growth which has shifted focus on alternative sources of energy. Again, in recent times the increase in oil prices and the sustainable development Goals has further heightened interests in the call for renewable energy. As stated earlier, Goal 7 enjoins all UN member states to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all [1].

Aside the above policy windows, two important global environment initiatives have also stimulated greater interest in renewables in Africa. The first was the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. At this Conference, an ambitious environment and development document entitled "Agenda 21" was reviewed by one of the largest gathering of Government Heads of States and endorsed by a large number of multinationals companies. Agenda 21 sought to operationalize the concept of sustainable development. In addition, the Rio Conference provided the venue for the second important event, the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by 155 Governments. The Convention came into force in early 1994 after ratification by 50 States. Renewables featured in both Agenda 21 and the Climate Change Convention. In addition, renewables featured high on the agenda of the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002. In the UN-led implementation plan of action for the WSSD, dubbed WEHAB (which stands for Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity), top priority was given to the renewables and other alternative forms of energy services. One of the targets proposed at WSSD was for every country to commit itself to meeting 10% of its national energy supply from renewables [30].

#### **5.6 Coupling the streams and the associated challenges**

The multiple streams framework suggests that the ability of a policy entrepreneur(s) to strategically couple the streams of problem, policy and politics through a window of opportunity and with the consent of policy makers, gives a high possibility for a policy to be adopted or an issue to get to the agenda stage [20–25]. The ensuing discussion clearly reveals that all the necessary factors are in place as proposed by the MSF. The question to ask then is: Has coupling of the streams been successful on the continental level? The discussions above points to the fact that prospects are high especially when you want to focus on Goal 7 of the SDGs, that proposes that member states should ensure access to affordable,

**173**

taken 7 years and still counting [43].

*Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges*

reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all [1]. The contribution of Africa to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services, to increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix and to enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy are yet to be realized, as it is recorded that the percentage of Sub-Saharan African population access to electricity is still below average [28] and then the existence of substantial potential of renewable energy resources that also remain untapped [31, 33]. It must be quickly pointed out that these are early days yet as the SDGs were born barely 4 years ago and the AU Agenda 2063 also about 6 years when it was agreed upon. This suggests that Africa has not been idle and it will be unfair on our part to gloss over the modest efforts being

However, despite the above, it is appropriate to focus attention on the factors that are likely to work against the efforts of African countries. First, it is observed that African countries differ in a number of ways, for example institutional frameworks and governance systems differ greatly. Some have open systems whereas others still practice a closed system. According to Gordon [43], the Ethiopian state is tightly controlled by the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The EPRDF is made up of four constituent parties based on ethnic groups, consisting of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO), and the Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM). Ethiopia is regarded as a country with a very high public investment rate but a low private investment rate. As a result the largest companies in the country are state-owned; those found to be private are owned by close allies of powerful political elites. On the other hand, in Kenya for example, private companies have been present for decades and the country has become a hub for innovation in commercial off-grid and micro-grid systems [43]. These experiences reflect different political, regulatory, and security environment and therefore poses contextual challenges to push for a collective renewable agenda without a

comprehensive assessment and understanding of AU member states.

The legislative and regulatory constraints in many African countries make it difficult to embark on a sustainable energy policy that would be workable in national jurisdictions. Different states have their own strategies in dealing with similar issues. And so a one size fits all renewable energy strategy will not suffice. Again, electoral related conflicts and other forms of ethnic-based violence in places like Congo DR, Sudan, Cote D'Ivoire, Kenya, Somalia, etc. poses security risks. Gordon [43] reports that the risk of protests represents the greatest physical threat to renewable energy assets. He recounts that between 2015 and 2018, protests recurred in Oromia, Amhara, and to a lesser extent in Addis Ababa and the Somali region. Protests often attracted thousands of people, and in Oromia and Amhara led to attacks on foreign businesses, particularly those that were either associated with the ruling party or those that were central to the government's economic policy. Additional challenge is the overreliance on international financing. This comes with a lot of conditionalities that are sometimes unfavorable to the socio-economic and political environment of most African countries. This calls for carefulness and due diligence in international business transactions but at the same time to reduce undue delays in contract performance. A classic case is the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project in Kenya which took nine years to reach financial closure. There are other ongoing projects like the Corbetti Geothermal project in Ethiopia which has

Also, the issue of infrastructure and skilled human resources leave much to be desired in this venture. It is observed that majority of infrastructure projects on

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89019*

pursued by member countries of the AU.

#### *Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89019*

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

UNEP, and AFREC).

**5.5 Policy windows**

and modern energy for all [1].

target their lending activities to projects related to energy or renewable energy. The IRENA on the other hand may adopt innovative strategies to promote renewable energy by concentrating on a narrowly defined set of goals with regards to the deployment of renewables and additionally provide epistemic services as well [42]. The study shows that the policy entrepreneurs to push the renewable energy agenda are vast and wide, with some of them already in the process (WB, AfDB, IRENA,

MSF proponents are of the view that policy windows present opportunities that pave the way for policy entrepreneurs to push their policy ideas to the policy makers/governments [24]. The AU Agenda 2063 is one of the continental policy windows with regards to the adoption of a renewable energy policy. The first aspiration of Agenda 2063 posits "a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development" [39]. It could be argued that this aspiration opens doors to discuss issues of renewable energy which could aid in inclusive growth and sustainable development. Another important policy window is the rise in population growth which has shifted focus on alternative sources of energy. Again, in recent times the increase in oil prices and the sustainable development Goals has further heightened interests in the call for renewable energy. As stated earlier, Goal 7 enjoins all UN member states to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable

Aside the above policy windows, two important global environment initiatives

have also stimulated greater interest in renewables in Africa. The first was the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. At this Conference, an ambitious environment and development document entitled "Agenda 21" was reviewed by one of the largest gathering of Government Heads of States and endorsed by a large number of multinationals companies. Agenda 21 sought to operationalize the concept of sustainable development. In addition, the Rio Conference provided the venue for the second important event, the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by 155 Governments. The Convention came into force in early 1994 after ratification by 50 States. Renewables featured in both Agenda 21 and the Climate Change Convention. In addition, renewables featured high on the agenda of the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002. In the UN-led implementation plan of action for the WSSD, dubbed WEHAB (which stands for Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity), top priority was given to the renewables and other alternative forms of energy services. One of the targets proposed at WSSD was for every country to commit itself to meeting

10% of its national energy supply from renewables [30].

**5.6 Coupling the streams and the associated challenges**

The multiple streams framework suggests that the ability of a policy entrepreneur(s) to strategically couple the streams of problem, policy and politics through a window of opportunity and with the consent of policy makers, gives a high possibility for a policy to be adopted or an issue to get to the agenda stage [20–25]. The ensuing discussion clearly reveals that all the necessary factors are in place as proposed by the MSF. The question to ask then is: Has coupling of the streams been successful on the continental level? The discussions above points to the fact that prospects are high especially when you want to focus on Goal 7 of the SDGs, that proposes that member states should ensure access to affordable,

**172**

reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all [1]. The contribution of Africa to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services, to increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix and to enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy are yet to be realized, as it is recorded that the percentage of Sub-Saharan African population access to electricity is still below average [28] and then the existence of substantial potential of renewable energy resources that also remain untapped [31, 33]. It must be quickly pointed out that these are early days yet as the SDGs were born barely 4 years ago and the AU Agenda 2063 also about 6 years when it was agreed upon. This suggests that Africa has not been idle and it will be unfair on our part to gloss over the modest efforts being pursued by member countries of the AU.

However, despite the above, it is appropriate to focus attention on the factors that are likely to work against the efforts of African countries. First, it is observed that African countries differ in a number of ways, for example institutional frameworks and governance systems differ greatly. Some have open systems whereas others still practice a closed system. According to Gordon [43], the Ethiopian state is tightly controlled by the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The EPRDF is made up of four constituent parties based on ethnic groups, consisting of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO), and the Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM). Ethiopia is regarded as a country with a very high public investment rate but a low private investment rate. As a result the largest companies in the country are state-owned; those found to be private are owned by close allies of powerful political elites. On the other hand, in Kenya for example, private companies have been present for decades and the country has become a hub for innovation in commercial off-grid and micro-grid systems [43]. These experiences reflect different political, regulatory, and security environment and therefore poses contextual challenges to push for a collective renewable agenda without a comprehensive assessment and understanding of AU member states.

The legislative and regulatory constraints in many African countries make it difficult to embark on a sustainable energy policy that would be workable in national jurisdictions. Different states have their own strategies in dealing with similar issues. And so a one size fits all renewable energy strategy will not suffice. Again, electoral related conflicts and other forms of ethnic-based violence in places like Congo DR, Sudan, Cote D'Ivoire, Kenya, Somalia, etc. poses security risks. Gordon [43] reports that the risk of protests represents the greatest physical threat to renewable energy assets. He recounts that between 2015 and 2018, protests recurred in Oromia, Amhara, and to a lesser extent in Addis Ababa and the Somali region. Protests often attracted thousands of people, and in Oromia and Amhara led to attacks on foreign businesses, particularly those that were either associated with the ruling party or those that were central to the government's economic policy. Additional challenge is the overreliance on international financing. This comes with a lot of conditionalities that are sometimes unfavorable to the socio-economic and political environment of most African countries. This calls for carefulness and due diligence in international business transactions but at the same time to reduce undue delays in contract performance. A classic case is the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project in Kenya which took nine years to reach financial closure. There are other ongoing projects like the Corbetti Geothermal project in Ethiopia which has taken 7 years and still counting [43].

Also, the issue of infrastructure and skilled human resources leave much to be desired in this venture. It is observed that majority of infrastructure projects on

the continent were financed by large international agencies because of the large costs involved. Also, the unstable economic environments highlighted in currency exchange rate fluctuations, depreciation and high interest rates do not provide opportunities for indigenous businesses to thrive.

Additionally, inadequate planning policies, lack of co-ordination and linkage in the Renewable Energy Technology program, weak dissemination strategies, poor baseline information and, weak maintenance service and infrastructure [30] are crucial challenges that should not be ignored. It is important to state that there is always an advantage in cooperation, and so the prospects to consider renewable energy as a very important energy source in Africa's energy mix should be sustained at worst and intensified at best if Africa is to make any meaningful contribution to the SDGs and its own Agenda 2063.

#### **6. Conclusion and policy implications**

This study has added to the extant literature on energy transition by exploring the situation in Africa and how best the continent can increase its energy mix with a focus on renewable energy. The study has clearly demonstrated that the energy situation in Africa has been dominated by fossil fuels which cause excessive emission of CO2 in to the atmosphere leading to climate change with its attendant consequences. A number of development opportunities have opened the door for discussions on renewable energy in Africa and the world at large. Excerpts of these opportunities include the famous SDGs, the AU Agenda 2063, the Earth Summit in Rio, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in the year 2002 and other important multilateral and bilateral treaties. Again, the study has revealed that the dominant renewable energy resources on the continent include geothermal, hydropower, wind energy, solar and bioenergy; and that many countries have already taken the lead in exploiting these resources [31].

Moreover, the study has shown that from the MSF perspective, the prospects of transitioning to renewable energy is high, in the sense that, the problem has been clearly defined as the huge gap in energy supply to the growing African population, the cost and scarcity associated with fossil fuels, and the excessive emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere leading to climatic changes by fossil fuels. African political elites and international actors have all agreed that renewable energy is not a bad idea and can add significantly to the energy mix in Africa. However, the challenge of political insecurity, infrastructural inadequacies, confusion in regulatory and institutional frameworks in some African countries, lack of skilled manpower, initial cost and investment risks are but a few of these challenges that require enormous attention if progressed is to be witnessed in the renewable energy venture.

Furthermore, in order to make significant progress in attaining the renewable energy objective as reflected in SDG Goal 7 by African countries, five main policy implications are worth considering. First, there should be conscious efforts of planning and developing a comprehensive renewable energy implementation framework for African countries with AFREC providing a supervisory role to ensure that AU member states are prioritizing renewable energy considerations in their domestic energy policies and programs. Second, efforts should be made to carefully select renewable energy technologies that are conducive to the African environment. In doing this, there should be a deliberate attempt by governments to train Africans in various aspects of renewable energy technologies. Third, the economic environment should be made conducive to attract and support indigenous Africans who are interested and want to embark on renewable energy investments.

**175**

*Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges*

Fourth, governments should take it upon themselves to ensure that regulatory and institutional frameworks are harmonized, made simple, easily accessible and easily understood to clearly define the parameters for investors, governments and the citizens/indigenous people. Fifth, AU member states can and should explore the option of trading electricity among themselves to widen the market base for renewables and curb the challenge of intermittent power supply. In conclusion, renewable energy comes along with many prospects in promoting national development; as a result, serious attention should be given to it at the national, sub-regional

AfDB African development bank – An international Bank for African

AREF African renewable energy fund – This is a fund established to sup-

AU African Union – An intergovernmental organization with African

EREC European renewable energy council – This was created in the year

GWh Giga Watts per hour – A unit of energy representing one billion

IEA International Energy Agency – An intergovernmental organiza-

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – This is the UN body

IRENA International Renewable Energy Agency – An intergovernmen-

awareness and engagement worldwide. InfraCo Africa InfraCo Africa is part of the multilateral Private Infrastructure

AFREC African energy commission – This body was set up by the

their implementation.

African emerging markets.

geothermal, etc.

countries that aims to encourage sustainable economic development and social progress thus contributing to poverty reduction.

Organization of African Unity (OAU) now known as AU to map out energy development policies, strategies and plans based on sub-regional, regional and continental development priorities and

port small to medium scale independent power producers (IPPs) across sub-Saharan Africa. It is managed by Berkeley Energy, an experienced renewable energy fund manager active in Asian and

Countries as members. It was formed in 2002 for mutual coopera-

2000, and it is the umbrella organization of the major European renewable energy industry, trade and research associations active in the field of photovoltaics, small hydropower, solar thermal,

watt hours and equivalent to one million kilowatts hour. It is used as a measure of the output of large electricity power stations.

tion that ensures reliable, affordable and clean energy for its 30 member countries and beyond. Their mission is focused on 4 main areas: energy security, economic development, environmental

Development Group (PIDG). InfraCo Africa seeks to alleviate poverty by mobilizing private investment into infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa's poorest countries to the highest standards.

for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risk and options for adaptation and mitigation.

tal organization that supports countries in their transition to a sustainable energy and serves as the principal platform for

tion to replace the defunct Organization of African Unity.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89019*

and continental levels.

**Abbreviations**

*Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89019*

Fourth, governments should take it upon themselves to ensure that regulatory and institutional frameworks are harmonized, made simple, easily accessible and easily understood to clearly define the parameters for investors, governments and the citizens/indigenous people. Fifth, AU member states can and should explore the option of trading electricity among themselves to widen the market base for renewables and curb the challenge of intermittent power supply. In conclusion, renewable energy comes along with many prospects in promoting national development; as a result, serious attention should be given to it at the national, sub-regional and continental levels.

### **Abbreviations**

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

the SDGs and its own Agenda 2063.

**6. Conclusion and policy implications**

opportunities for indigenous businesses to thrive.

the continent were financed by large international agencies because of the large costs involved. Also, the unstable economic environments highlighted in currency exchange rate fluctuations, depreciation and high interest rates do not provide

Additionally, inadequate planning policies, lack of co-ordination and linkage in the Renewable Energy Technology program, weak dissemination strategies, poor baseline information and, weak maintenance service and infrastructure [30] are crucial challenges that should not be ignored. It is important to state that there is always an advantage in cooperation, and so the prospects to consider renewable energy as a very important energy source in Africa's energy mix should be sustained at worst and intensified at best if Africa is to make any meaningful contribution to

This study has added to the extant literature on energy transition by exploring the situation in Africa and how best the continent can increase its energy mix with a focus on renewable energy. The study has clearly demonstrated that the energy situation in Africa has been dominated by fossil fuels which cause excessive emission of CO2 in to the atmosphere leading to climate change with its attendant consequences. A number of development opportunities have opened the door for discussions on renewable energy in Africa and the world at large. Excerpts of these opportunities include the famous SDGs, the AU Agenda 2063, the Earth Summit in Rio, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in the year 2002 and other important multilateral and bilateral treaties. Again, the study has revealed that the dominant renewable energy resources on the continent include geothermal, hydropower, wind energy, solar and bioenergy; and that many

countries have already taken the lead in exploiting these resources [31].

Moreover, the study has shown that from the MSF perspective, the prospects of transitioning to renewable energy is high, in the sense that, the problem has been clearly defined as the huge gap in energy supply to the growing African population, the cost and scarcity associated with fossil fuels, and the excessive emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere leading to climatic changes by fossil fuels. African political elites and international actors have all agreed that renewable energy is not a bad idea and can add significantly to the energy mix in Africa. However, the challenge of political insecurity, infrastructural inadequacies, confusion in regulatory and institutional frameworks in some African countries, lack of skilled manpower, initial cost and investment risks are but a few of these challenges that require enormous attention if progressed is to be witnessed in the renewable

Furthermore, in order to make significant progress in attaining the renewable energy objective as reflected in SDG Goal 7 by African countries, five main policy implications are worth considering. First, there should be conscious efforts of planning and developing a comprehensive renewable energy implementation framework for African countries with AFREC providing a supervisory role to ensure that AU member states are prioritizing renewable energy considerations in their domestic energy policies and programs. Second, efforts should be made to carefully select renewable energy technologies that are conducive to the African environment. In doing this, there should be a deliberate attempt by governments to train Africans in various aspects of renewable energy technologies. Third, the economic environment should be made conducive to attract and support indigenous Africans who are interested and want to embark on renewable energy investments.

**174**

energy venture.



### **Author details**

Samuel Adams\* and William Asante School of Public Service and Governance, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Accra, Ghana

\*Address all correspondence to: sadamss2000@yahoo.com

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**177**

*Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges*

Politics. 2016;**25**(5):853-874. DOI: 10.1080/09644016.2016.1168062

[10] Aklin M, Urpelainen J. Political competition, path dependence, and the strategy of sustainable energy transitions. American Journal of Political Science. 2013;**57**(3):643-658.

[11] Carlisle JE, Feezell JT, Michaud KE, Smith ER. The Politics of Energy Crises. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2016

[12] Grossman PZ. US Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2013

[13] Nohrstedt D, Weible CM. The logic of policy change after crisis: Proximity and subsystem interaction. Risk, Hazards and Crisis in Public Policy.

[14] Nohrstedt D. The politics of crisis policymaking: Chernobyl and Swedish nuclear energy policy. Policy Studies

[16] Smil V. Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects. Santa Barbara:

[17] Schwerhoff G, Sy M. Developing Africa's energy mix. Climate Policy.

[18] Breetz HL, Mildenberger M, Stokes LC. The political logics of clean energy transitions. Business and

[19] Delucchi MA, Jacobson MZ. Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power. Part II:

Politics. 2018;**20**(4):492-522

Journal. 2008;**36**(2):257-278

[15] Smith ERAN. Energy, the Environment, and Public Opinion. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield

DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12002

2010;**1**(2):1-32

Publishers; 2002

Praeger; 2010

2019;**19**(1):108-124

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89019*

[1] United Nations Economic

Commission for Africa. Accelerating SDG 7 Achievement Policy Briefs in Support of the First SDG 7 Review at the un High-Level Political Forum 2018. Retrieved from: https:// sustainabledevelopment.un.org/

content/documents/18041SDG7\_Policy\_

[3] Boyle G. Renewable Energy. Oxford:

[4] Hughes L, Lipscy PY. The politics of energy. Annual Review of Political

[5] Ansolabehere S, Konisky DM. Cheap and Clean: How Americans Think About Energy in the Age of Global Warming. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press;

[6] Stokes LC. The politics of renewable energy policies: The case of feed-in tariffs in Ontario, Canada. Energy Policy. 2013;**56**:490-500. DOI: 10.1016/j.

[7] Stokes LC, Warshaw C. Renewable energy policy design and framing influence public support in the United States. Nature Energy. 2017;**2**(17107): 1-6. DOI: 10.1038/nenergy.2017.107

[8] Stokes LC, Breetz HL. Politics in the US energy transition: Case studies of solar, wind, biofuels and electric vehicles policy. Energy Policy. 2018;**113**:1-43. Available at: https:// escholarship.org/uc/item/8v19r289

[9] Meckling J, Jenner S. Varieties of market-based policy: Instrument choice in climate policy. Environmental

[2] Burke MJ, Stephens JC. Political power and renewable energy futures: A critical review. Energy Research & Social Science. 2018;**35**:78-93. DOI:

10.1016/j.erss.2017.10.018

Science. 2013;**16**:449-469

Oxford University Press; 2004

**References**

Brief.pdf

2014

enpol.2013.01.009

*Politics of Renewable Energy in Africa: Nature, Prospects, and Challenges DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89019*

### **References**

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

able energy.

infrastructure.

income countries.

related issues.

international co-operation, a center of excellence, and a repository of policy, technology, resource and financial knowledge on renew-

Ktoe Kiloton of Oil Equivalent – This is a unit to measure the amount of

MSF Multiple streams framework – A theory developed by John

MW Mega Watt – This is a unit of power equal to one million watts,

PIGD Private Infrastructure Development Group – It encourages and

REEEP Renewable energy and energy efficiency partnership – A body that

SE4ALL Sustainable energy for all – An independent not for profit inter-

UNEP United Nations Environment Programme – It is part of the UN sys-

UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – It is

School of Public Service and Governance, Ghana Institute of Management and

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

displaced people, energy and health, etc.

Energy released by burning a thousand tonnes of crude oil.

especially as a measure of the output of a power station.

Kingdon to explain agenda setting in the policy making process.

mobilizes private investment in infrastructure in the frontier markets of sub-Saharan Africa, south and south-east Asia, to help promote economic development and combat poverty. Since 2002, PIDG has supported 154 infrastructure projects to financial close and provided 222 million people with access to new or improved

develops innovations, efficient financing mechanisms to advance market readiness for clean energy services in low and middle-

national organization with headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Some of its priority areas include electricity for all in Africa, energy for

tem. It is the arm of the UN that takes charge of all environment-

part of the UN system, and established in 1992. It is tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change.

**176**

**Author details**

Samuel Adams\* and William Asante

Public Administration, Accra, Ghana

provided the original work is properly cited.

\*Address all correspondence to: sadamss2000@yahoo.com

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[2] Burke MJ, Stephens JC. Political power and renewable energy futures: A critical review. Energy Research & Social Science. 2018;**35**:78-93. DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2017.10.018

[3] Boyle G. Renewable Energy. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2004

[4] Hughes L, Lipscy PY. The politics of energy. Annual Review of Political Science. 2013;**16**:449-469

[5] Ansolabehere S, Konisky DM. Cheap and Clean: How Americans Think About Energy in the Age of Global Warming. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press; 2014

[6] Stokes LC. The politics of renewable energy policies: The case of feed-in tariffs in Ontario, Canada. Energy Policy. 2013;**56**:490-500. DOI: 10.1016/j. enpol.2013.01.009

[7] Stokes LC, Warshaw C. Renewable energy policy design and framing influence public support in the United States. Nature Energy. 2017;**2**(17107): 1-6. DOI: 10.1038/nenergy.2017.107

[8] Stokes LC, Breetz HL. Politics in the US energy transition: Case studies of solar, wind, biofuels and electric vehicles policy. Energy Policy. 2018;**113**:1-43. Available at: https:// escholarship.org/uc/item/8v19r289

[9] Meckling J, Jenner S. Varieties of market-based policy: Instrument choice in climate policy. Environmental Politics. 2016;**25**(5):853-874. DOI: 10.1080/09644016.2016.1168062

[10] Aklin M, Urpelainen J. Political competition, path dependence, and the strategy of sustainable energy transitions. American Journal of Political Science. 2013;**57**(3):643-658. DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12002

[11] Carlisle JE, Feezell JT, Michaud KE, Smith ER. The Politics of Energy Crises. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2016

[12] Grossman PZ. US Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2013

[13] Nohrstedt D, Weible CM. The logic of policy change after crisis: Proximity and subsystem interaction. Risk, Hazards and Crisis in Public Policy. 2010;**1**(2):1-32

[14] Nohrstedt D. The politics of crisis policymaking: Chernobyl and Swedish nuclear energy policy. Policy Studies Journal. 2008;**36**(2):257-278

[15] Smith ERAN. Energy, the Environment, and Public Opinion. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers; 2002

[16] Smil V. Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects. Santa Barbara: Praeger; 2010

[17] Schwerhoff G, Sy M. Developing Africa's energy mix. Climate Policy. 2019;**19**(1):108-124

[18] Breetz HL, Mildenberger M, Stokes LC. The political logics of clean energy transitions. Business and Politics. 2018;**20**(4):492-522

[19] Delucchi MA, Jacobson MZ. Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power. Part II: Reliability, system and transmission costs, and policies. Energy Policy. 2011;**39**(3):1170-1190

[20] Kingdon JW. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. 2nd ed. New York: Harper; 1995

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[23] Ruseva T, Foster M, Arnold G, Siddiki S, York A, Pudney R, et al. Applying policy process theories to environmental governance research: Themes and new directions. Policy Studies Journal. 2019;**47**(S1):S66-S95

[24] Howlett M, McConnell A, Perl A. Moving policy theory forward: Connecting multiple stream and advocacy coalition frameworks to policy cycle models of analysis. Australian Journal of Public Administration. 2016;**76**(1):65-79

[25] Zahariadis N. The multiple streams framework: Structure, limitations, prospects. In: Sabatier P, editor. Theories of the Policy Process. 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press; 2007

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[29] AFREC. AFREC Africa Energy Database. Algiers: African Energy Commission (AFREC); 2015

[30] Karekezi S, Kithyoma W. Renewable energy development. In: The Workshop for African Energy Experts on Operationalizing the NEPAD Energy Initiative; 2-4 June 2003. Senegal: Novotel, Dakar; 2003

[31] IRENA. Renewable Energy Statistics 2019. Abu Dhabi: The International Renewable Energy Agency; 2019

[32] IRENA. Africa 2030: Roadmap for a Renewable Energy Future. IRENA: Abu Dhabi; 2015

[33] UNEP. Atlas of Africa Energy Resources. Kenya: UNEP; 2017

[34] Owusu PA, Asumadu-Sarkodie S. A review of renewable energy sources, sustainability issues and climate change mitigation. Cogent Engineering. 2016;**3**:1-15

[35] International Energy Agency. Energy Climate and Change World. Energy Outlook Special Report. 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.iea. org/publications/freepublications/ publication/WEO2015SpecialReporton EnergyandClimateChange.pdf

[36] Souza GM, Ballester MVR, de Brito Cruz CH, Chum H, Dale B, Dale VH. The role of bioenergy in a climate-changing world. Environmental Development. 2017;**23**:57-64

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[39] African Union Commission. Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: AUC; 2015. Available

[40] Kagame P. Report on the Proposed Recommendations for the Institutional Reform of the African Union. Addis Ababa: African Union; 2017. Retrieved from: https://au.int/sites/default/files/ pages/32777-file-report-20institutional

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from: www.agenda2063.au.int

20reform20of20the20au-2.pdf

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[42] Ozkan G. Global energy security, international politics and renewable energy resources. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Approach and

[43] Gordon E. The Politics of Renewable Energy in East Africa. Oxford: The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies;

[41] Bishoge OK, Zhang L,

Studies. 2018;**05**(1):39-47

2018;**1**:70-88

2018

1998;**18**(1):53-74

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[38] Birkland TA. Focusing events, mobilization, and agenda setting. Journal of Public Policy. 1998;**18**(1):53-74

*Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020*

Reliability, system and transmission costs, and policies. Energy Policy.

Energy Agency, and the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program. 2017. Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.

org/indicator/EG.ELC.ACCS.

for African Energy Experts on Operationalizing the NEPAD Energy Initiative; 2-4 June 2003. Senegal:

Novotel, Dakar; 2003

Dhabi; 2015

2016;**3**:1-15

[29] AFREC. AFREC Africa Energy Database. Algiers: African Energy Commission (AFREC); 2015

[30] Karekezi S, Kithyoma W. Renewable energy development. In: The Workshop

[31] IRENA. Renewable Energy Statistics 2019. Abu Dhabi: The International Renewable Energy Agency; 2019

[32] IRENA. Africa 2030: Roadmap for a Renewable Energy Future. IRENA: Abu

[34] Owusu PA, Asumadu-Sarkodie S. A review of renewable energy sources, sustainability issues and climate change mitigation. Cogent Engineering.

[33] UNEP. Atlas of Africa Energy Resources. Kenya: UNEP; 2017

[35] International Energy Agency. Energy Climate and Change World. Energy Outlook Special Report. 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.iea. org/publications/freepublications/ publication/WEO2015SpecialReporton

EnergyandClimateChange.pdf

Development. 2017;**23**:57-64

Elsevier; 2015. pp. 367-373

[36] Souza GM, Ballester MVR, de Brito Cruz CH, Chum H, Dale B, Dale VH. The role of bioenergy in a climate-changing world. Environmental

[37] Lauber V. Political economy of renewable energy. In: Wright JD, editor. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences. Oxford:

ZS?locations=ZG

[20] Kingdon JW. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. 2nd ed. New York:

[21] Kingdon JW. Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies. 2nd ed. England: Pearson Education Limited; 2014

[22] Howlett M, McConnell A, Perl A. Streams and stages: Reconciling kingdon and policy process theory. European Journal of Political Research.

[23] Ruseva T, Foster M, Arnold G, Siddiki S, York A, Pudney R, et al. Applying policy process theories to environmental governance research: Themes and new directions. Policy Studies Journal. 2019;**47**(S1):S66-S95

[24] Howlett M, McConnell A,

Perl A. Moving policy theory forward: Connecting multiple stream and

advocacy coalition frameworks to policy cycle models of analysis. Australian Journal of Public Administration.

[25] Zahariadis N. The multiple streams framework: Structure, limitations, prospects. In: Sabatier P, editor. Theories of the Policy Process. 2nd ed. Boulder,

2011;**39**(3):1170-1190

Harper; 1995

2015;**54**:419-434

2016;**76**(1):65-79

CO: Westview Press; 2007

Politics. 2014;**23**(5):735-754

[26] Voß J-P, Simons A. Instrument constituencies and the supply side of policy innovation: The social life of emissions trading. Environmental

[27] Stimson JA. Public Opinion in America: Moods Cycles and Swings. Boulder: Westview Press; 1991

[28] World Bank. Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Database from the SE4ALL Global Tracking Framework led jointly by the World Bank, International

**178**

[39] African Union Commission. Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: AUC; 2015. Available from: www.agenda2063.au.int

[40] Kagame P. Report on the Proposed Recommendations for the Institutional Reform of the African Union. Addis Ababa: African Union; 2017. Retrieved from: https://au.int/sites/default/files/ pages/32777-file-report-20institutional 20reform20of20the20au-2.pdf

[41] Bishoge OK, Zhang L, Mushi WG. The potential renewable energy for sustainable development in Tanzania: A review. Clean Technology. 2018;**1**:70-88

[42] Ozkan G. Global energy security, international politics and renewable energy resources. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Approach and Studies. 2018;**05**(1):39-47

[43] Gordon E. The Politics of Renewable Energy in East Africa. Oxford: The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies; 2018

## *Edited by Albert Sabban*

In the last fifty years, the Earth has experienced rapid changes in climate, increasingly severe droughts, rising seawater levels, seawater acidification, increased depletion of groundwater reserves, and global rise of temperature. Green technologies for recycling waste, particularly electronic waste, which is increasing at an alarming rate, may be a potential solution to environmental pollution. Divided into three sections, this book presents comprehensive information on green technologies. Section 1 presents innovations in green electronic technologies, Section 2 discusses recycling and waste management, and Section 3 discusses innovation and economics in global green technologies.

Published in London, UK © 2020 IntechOpen © weerapatkiatdumrong / iStock

Innovation in Global Green Technologies 2020

Innovation in Global Green

Technologies 2020

*Edited by Albert Sabban*