Green tech innovation key to climate adaptation efforts
Hötte, Postdoctoral Researcher on Technological and Economic change at the University of Oxford, and Jee, Lecturer in Business Analytics and Technology Management at the Bradford School of Management, ‘22
[Kerstin and Su Jung, “Knowledge for a warmer world: A patent analysis of climate change adaptation technologies”, Technological Forecasting and Social Change Volume 183, October 2022, Elsevier, 7/18/2024 GDI ACN]
Climate change poses an existential threat to human livelihoods (Bellprat et al., 2019, Ornes, 2018). Recent extreme weather events have demonstrated the immediate need for significant adaptations driven by technological innovation to help communities adjust to these new climatic conditions (IPCC, 2018). For instance, technological innovation plays an important role in addressing this challenge (Ferreira et al., 2020, Dechezlepretre et al., 2020): climate-smart agriculture could help communities to adapt to droughts, floods, and increasing threats of pest infestation (Kuhl, 2020, Adenle et al., 2015); new types of hazard defense and weather prediction tools help protect infrastructure and human lives from storms, floods, and heatwaves (UNFCCC, 2006); water conservation and catchment technologies help address water scarcity (Conway et al., 2015); vaccines, new drugs, and preventive public health inventions strengthen people’s resistance against infectious diseases and heatwave-induced risks that become more prevalent under climate change (Guo et al., 2018, Caminade et al., 2019). Alongside nature-based solutions and behavioral changes, adaptation technologies are needed to cope with current and future climate risks (UNFCCC, 2006, UNEP, 2021).