Y02 as Climate Praxis

Abstract

This article introduces the recently adopted Y02 patent classification scheme, covering the broader cross-sectoral technologies that “allow adapting to the adverse effects of climate change,” and explores the relationship of this global innovation initiative to environmental design and planning praxis. The Y02 classification includes specific subcategories Y02A for “Technologies for Adaptation to Climate Change” and Y02B, “Climate Change Mitigation Technologies Related to Buildings,” making it highly relevant to the climate adaptation practices of architecture, landscape architecture, and planning. The YO2A and Y02B classification schemes (a subclass of Y02) were launched in 2018 and are now implemented by patent offices globally to categorize a range of adaptation technologies across sectors such as coastal systems, flood control, building systems, adaptation of existing infrastructure, green infrastructure, human health, and technologies for mapping and sensing the environment. Tagging and organizing patent innovations in this broad sector consolidates information on the subject, allows for the rapid diffusion of innovation, and builds adaptive capacity by creating a knowledge infrastructure and anticipatory framework for future technological trends. The fast pace of innovation in these sectors and the wealth of readily available information present the allied fields of environmental design and planning a distinct opportunity to integrate Y02A and Y02B into climate praxis. This article explores how innovation in these sectors may inform practices of scenario building in planning and design through discourse on probable, plausible, pluralistic, and performative futures. It elucidates the potential of these newly established patent classifications as an anticipatory framework for technological innovation in the built environment.