The Global Cleantech Innovation Index (GCII) program investigates where, relative to GDP, entrepreneurial clean technology companies are most likely to emerge from over the next 10 years – and why.

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Drawing on a wide range of factors and sources, the study seeks to answer the same question as the 2012 and 2014 GCII reports, namely: which countries currently have the greatest potential to produce entrepreneurial cleantech start-up companies that will commercialise clean technology innovations over the next 10 years?

Denmark tops the 2017 index
Denmark tops the 2017 Index, moving up from 5th place in 2014, based on strong scores in both inputs to innovation and outputs of innovation. The key contributing cleantech specific drivers include the amount of capital raised by cleantech funds and the number of cleantech organisations.

Denmark also shows strong evidence of commercialised cleantech, including cleantech exports, the number of public cleantech companies and the number of renewable energy jobs.

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Finland and Sweden second and third
The top three positions are held by Denmark, Finland and Sweden, which is not surprising based on very strong positions in the 2014 Index. All three appear to be gearing up for additional growth with increases in the numbers and amount of cleantech funds. The lowest scoring Nordic country is Norway. There are challenges for Norway but it is also the country with highest cleantech R&D budgets in 2013-15. The world would invest roughly 4 times more in cleantech R&D if it adopted the same level of cleantech R&D per GDP as Norway. The Nordic region performs strongly in 2017 Index.

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Overall, and consistent with the 2014 Index, this 2017 Index demonstrates that countries will score well if they are a) addressing growing demand for renewable energy and other clean technologies; b) connecting start-ups with multiple channels to increase their success rates and; c) increasing international engagement across the cleantech ecosystem.

Source: The Global Cleentech Innovation Index 2017