Trend and priority change of climate change mitigation technology in the global mining sector

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to explore the most relevant driving factors for innovation in the mining, mineral processing and metals sectors, related to climate change mitigation technology (CCMT). To do so, we use a decomposition analysis based on the logarithmic mean Divisia index to analyze the trends in patent families collected from the World Intellectual Property Organization Mining database between 2001 and 2016. The sheer number of patent families filed in the most relevant patent offices is decomposed from the perspective of three factors, namely: the priority of climate change mitigation technology in a country; the overall relevance of the mining, mineral processing and metals sector in a country; and the size of patent families from a country. These factors have a different impact in different country groups, depending on whether the mining and minerals sector plays a strong role in their economy or not, or whether they are a developed or developing country. We observe that the decomposed patent trend correlates well with important events that affect the mining and metals sector, for example, the Paris Agreement and the price trend of metals. We are able to draw conclusions on how CCMT is developing in the mining sector of different countries and use those conclusions to support policies that encourage the further development of CCMT.