Green Tech: innovation grows by 23%
A record-breaking Italy in 2022: with 4773 patent applications published by the European Patent Office, the Belpaese is in fifth place in the European ranking and eleventh in the world ranking for inventive capacity in the Epo.
An important result, especially if we consider the exponential increase over the years: in fact, it must be considered not only that the applications for 2022 were 218 more than the previous year (an increase of 5%), but also that for years there has been a continuous increase in the number of patent applications in our country, with a variation of 33% from 2015 to 2022.
Representing 88% of the total, companies proposed 4188 applications. Private inventors, with a sharp acceleration compared to 2021, represent 7%, while research institutions and universities 5%.
A greater growth in applications was recorded in the South (with an increase of 29%) and in the North East (with an increase of 6%). The most dynamic region was Abruzzo, which recorded a growth of 93%. Campania (+46%) and Puglia (+14%) follow in the South. In the North-East, however, the most inventive regions were Friuli-Venezia Giulia (+21%) and Trentino-Alto Adige (+12%). Outside these two macro-areas Liguria (+28%) and Umbria (+57%).
In the top ten provinces from which more than half of Italian applications come, Milan stands out in first place, followed by Turin and Bologna in second and then Rome, the only city in the ranking that is not from the North. Chieti submitted 63 applications, recording a significant increase compared to 16 in 2021.
Most of the requests come from the mechanical and means of transport sector, but a decisive increase in the green technologies sector should also be noted. The recorded growth is 23% compared to 2021: applications for patents for waste treatment and management stand out (with an increase of 22%: compared to the total, applications in this field occupy a percentage of 29%); then follow applications for patents for alternative energies (+72%) and those relating to product design (+66%).
Green technology and renewable energies are fundamental in the path of ecological transition and energy independence of our country. Mattarella, who concluded his state visit to Norway with a visit to the Trondheim Polytechnic, a leading Scandinavian pole in the study and application of technologies also and above all related to the energy transition, underlined that “making the future green” has become an “inevitable challenge”.
Energy independence and the country’s development can no longer depend on traditional sources and the variability of relationships with external realities: «The change of pace must concern innovation, not just the change of supply routes and suppliers. We need a new paradigm, we need to have the ambition to be in the front group that drives the change, rather than in the rear group aimed at administering a past that is running out”.
It is essential to “accelerate the green transition”: the increase in innovations in terms of green technology bodes well for the virtuous path that our country is beginning to take.
