Is there a case for or against patents to incentivize green technologies? : a critical evaluation of innovation incentives for the global north and global south

Abstract

The world society is in urgent need for new ecological problem solutions on a global scale. However, the current system to incentivize invention and innovation for green technologies is only limitedly able to provide effective solutions—particularly in the “global south”. Since patents that exert distortionary effects remain the dominant mechanisms for incentivizing innovation, the debate about alternative incentivization instruments for fostering green invention and innovation has recently been renewed. Yet, some of these instruments run the danger of a so-called “projectitis”, an obsession with static small-scale projects. Instead, this article argues that we need scalable experiments for a better institutional support of systemic invention and innovation activities by improving the global governance regime that moves beyond individual organizations, industries, sectors, states, and geopolitical blocks. From a sustainability nexus perspective, required scalable innovation ecosystems must therefore account for the interconnections between technological, economic, political, social, and environmental issues. A reformed order that combines patents and alternative incentivization instruments may help to redirect resources towards fostering a more systemic, market-based, and consumer-oriented path of legitimate sustainable global development, as proposed by the 2030 Agenda and its sustainable development goals (SDGs), without leaving particular countries behind, while at the same time maintaining companies’ systemic dynamism in the long run.