Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/265913 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 9878
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
The costs of low-carbon energy fell dramatically over the past decade, leading to rapid growth in its deployment. However, many challenges remain to deploy low-carbon energy at a scale necessary to meet net zero carbon emission targets. We argue that developing complementary technologies and skills must feature prominently in the next wave of low-carbon energy innovation. These include both improvements in physical capital, such as smart grids to aid integration of intermittent renewables, and human capital, to develop the skills workers need for a low-carbon economy. We document recent trends in energy innovation and discuss the lessons learnt for policy. We then discuss the need for complementary innovation in both physical capital—using smart grids as an example of how policy can help—and human capital, where we show how a task approach to labor informs policy and research on the worker skills needed for the energy transition.
Subjects: 
low-carbon energy
innovation
patents
human capital
skills
JEL: 
J24
O31
O38
Q42
Q55
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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