1. Commitment 18 “Eco-innovation”
I3U Project Meeting & Technical Workshop: Vienna, 14. &
Sandra M. Leitner

2. Commitment 18
“By early 2011 the Commission will present an eco-innovation action plan building on the Innovation Union and focusing on the specific bottlenecks, challenges and opportunities for achieving environmental objectives through innovation."

3. Rationale and Objectives
Specific policies and actions are needed to:
accelerate uptake of eco-innovation
remove barriers in order to promote, accelerate and diffuse eco-innovation in society
Objectives
Pretty vague; more strongly linked to awareness than to hard (quantifiable) objectives
Achieve environmentally and socially sustainable growth in the longer run and, indirectly, economic recovery in the short-term

4. Solution: EcoAP (launched in December 2011 by EC)
7 measures to improve market uptake of EI:
environmental policy & legislation as driver for eco-innovation (C15)
support demonstration projects & partnering
develop new standards (C16)
financial instruments & support services for SMEs (C7)
promote int’l co-operation
support the development of emerging skills and jobs and related training programs to match labour market needs
promote eco-innovation through the European Innovation Partnerships (C29)

5. Related Literature - Summary
Drivers of EI (effects depend on type of technology considered):
Regulations: (stringency of) regulations (very important); subsidies (less important);
Technology push: TC, cooperations & collaborations, cost-saving motive, EMS;
Demand pull: expected future demand, expected increase in market shares, customer benefit;
Economic effects of EI (by and large, positive!):
Higher LP (effect of EI tends to be lower than for other innovations);
Higher employment: positive for product eco-innovations, mixed for process eco-innovations;
Higher profits & sales growth;

6. Potential Indicators Name Source Yearly coverage Country coverage
GBOARD (by socio-economic objective)
OECD
Up to 2014
OECD (plus RO)
ERDF (priority area: environment)
DG-Regio
EU-28
Eco-innovation inputs, activities and outputs indices
Eco-Innovation Scoreboard
Eco-patents
EPO
Orbis
Bureau van Dijk
Worldwide
CIS-2008
Eurostat (CD or SC)
All EU-28 but BE, DK, EL, HR, AT, PL, UK
CIS-2014 (available mid-2016)
not yet known
Flash Eurobarometer No. 315 EC
Survey year: 2011
EU-27 (5.222 SMEs)

7. Direct Impact Assessment – Approach Barriers and Effects of Eco-Innovations
Firm-level:
LP: CIS-2014, extended CDM-model: differentiate between eco- and non-eco-innovators;
Employment: CIS-2014, modified Harrison et al. (2008) approach;
Macro-level (necessary?):
Growth – another growth equation: with indices from the Eco-Innovation Scoreboard as additional controls;

8. Commitment Map – C18
Commitment’s rationale Solution Main impact channels Main types of impact Indicators Outcome
Achieve environ-mental objectives through innovation
EcoAP (2011) 7 measures to improve market up-take:
environmental policy & legislation as driver for eco-innovation (C15)
support demonstra-tion projects & partnering
develop new stan-dards (C16)
financial instru-ments & support services for SMEs (C7)
promote int’l co-operation
support the devel-opment of emerging skills and jobs and related training programs to match labour market needs
promote eco-inno-vation through the European Innovation Partnerships (C29)
Regulatory pull/push
Market-based (taxes, subsidies, tradable permits etc.)
Regulatory instru-ments (standards)
Economic
Stimulate eco-innova-tions (eco-R&D, green jobs)
Improved market uptake of eco-innovations
More green-HC & know-ledge
Input measures
Eco-R&D exp.
Eco-investments
No of green jobs
Competitiveness (productivity, exports, market shares)
Accelerate market uptake of eco-innovation & remove financial, economic and institutional barriers to promote, accelerate and diffuse eco-innovation in society
Intermediate measures
Eco-patents
Scientific publica-tions
Citations
No of coop-pro-jects
Eco-innovation
Social
Higher environmental awareness in society
Addresses some of the EU’s key societal challenges like:
Climate change, resource efficiency
Secure, clean & efficient energy
Smart, green & integrated transport
Technology push
Technological capabilities
More intense national & int’l cooperation & knowledge transfer
Better eco-innov. financing
GDP
Coordinated policy approach able to tackle failures in the eco-innovation system, create long term favourable conditions for eco-innovation through intervention at a wider EU policy level
Output measures
No of eco-product, process, organi-zational innovations
Employment
Demand pull
Increased environ-mental consciousness & market demand
Environmental
Reduced impact on environment (e.g. risk, pollution etc.)
Higher resource efficiency of increasingly scarce resources (materials, energy etc.)

9. Open questions What particular indicator is most useful for NEMESIS?
CIS-2014 will only be available mid-2016
Impact on what exactly? Output growth and employment?