Regional Distribution of Green Growth Patents in four Nordic Countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden

This report is part of the project on The Geography Of Nordic Sustainability Transitions (GONST). In the project researchers from Lund University, Aalborg University, University of Tampere, NIFU, SINTEF, and the Technical University of Denmark ask the question "Where does the green economy grow?" The project is generously funded by the Nordic Green Growth Research and Innovation Programme in cooperation with NordForsk, Nordic Innovation and Nordic Energy Research [Grant no. 83130].

The starting point for the project is the idea that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to greening the growth path of an economy as this depends on place-based policy and institutional settings, level of development, resource endowments and particular environmental pressure points. The GONST project addresses the place-based, contextdependent nature of the shift to green growth in the Nordic countries by asking the question: where does the green economy grow? In addressing this question, we foreground the importance of innovation, new industry formation, and radical industry transformation.

The GONST project is based on a mixed methods approach building on qualitative and quantitative techniques. Quantitative techniques will be applied to analyse the importance of human capital and technological specialisation for the greening of the economy. Qualitative case studies of Nordic regions will focus on the role of institutions and account for the diversity in Nordic regional green pathways.

This report fulfils the first delivery of work package three (WP3) on mapping the technological specialisations of regions across the four Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The mapping in this report will be followed up by more analytical tasks in order to understand the patterns of green patenting activity across Nordic regions.