Asia’s rising “clean technology tigers”–China, Japan, and South Korea–have already passed the United States in the
production of virtually all clean energy technologies, and over the next five years, the government’s of these nations will
out-invest the United States three-to-one in these sectors, according to a new report.
"Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant" published by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Breakthrough Institute, attempts to benchmark the clean energy competitiveness of four nations: China, Japan, South Korea and the United States.
The report analyzes clean energy investments and policy support for research, manufacturing, and domestic demand, with a particular focus on six key technologies: wind, solar, nuclear, carbon capture and storage, hybrid and electric vehicles and advanced batteries, and high speed rail.
"Government investments in research and development, clean energy manufacturing capacity, the deployment of clean energy technologies, and the establishment of enabling infrastructure, will allow these Asian nations to capture economies of scale, learning-by-doing, and innovation advantages before the United States, where public investments are smaller, less direct, and less targeted," the report states.
Should the investment gap persist, the United States will import the overwhelming majority of clean energy technologies it deploys.
Another key finding of the report is that the proposed U.S. climate and energy legislation, as currently formulated, is not sufficient to close the cleantech investment gap.
The executive summary and full report are available at the link below.
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