Competitiveness Technology and Innovation

Green Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean: Patterns and Policies

Title of the study: Case studies on the diffusion of specific Green Innovation technologies in LAC

Green Innovation (GI) can play a central role to foster a new model of economic growth and development, where natural assets could continue to provide the resources and environmental services necessary for the well-being of present and future generations. GI (also referred to as eco-innovation, environmental innovation, or sustainable innovation) includes both the creation and commercialization of new frontier technologies more environmentally benign than relevant alternatives (on a life cycle basis), as well as the diffusion and adoption of greener technologies new to the firm. The environmental benefit may be the primary goal or an unintended side-effect.

In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), GI policy initiatives have been sporadic and heterogeneous in their form and execution, generally failing to achieve significant results. One of the reasons underlying this situation is the presence of various knowledge gaps in the area which limits the capacity of regional policymakers to design and implement effective interventions. LAC currently appears lagging behind other global regions with respect to monitoring and studying GI.

Objectives

The general objective of this call for proposals is to better understand how green technologies have diffused in the region and to disentangle the role that public policies have had in their commercial deployment.  More specifically, this call for proposals aims at:

(1) Identifying at least 2 specific GI technologies which have diffused in (one or more countries of) the region;
(2) Analyzing where and how these technologies have originated (e.g. if they are inside or outside the environmental domain), and if and how they have been readapted and tailored to the needs of the region;
(3) Understanding and characterizing the main drivers or obstacles to their diffusion;
(4) Pinpointing the positive (or negative) effects that environmental public policies have had in their commercial deployment, paying particular attention on how these policies have interacted with other policies developed in other domains;
(5) Understanding the institutional mechanisms, policies and any other relevant mechanisms which can explain the observed GI technology diffusion patterns.

In order to participate in this project, interested researchers and consultants should submit a technical proposal, in English, no longer than 5 pages.

Please read the right column of this webpage for more information about the schedule of activities and download the full document of this Call for more details on the technical proposal.