[authors: Noor Al-Banna and Andrea Korney]
In the quest for a sustainable future, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent goalposts, albeit lofty ones, that countries can aim for. These 17 interconnected goals address pressing global challenges, from climate change to income and gender inequality. Achieving these goals requires more than just lofty aspirations, however. It demands concrete action from governments and corporations alike.
Image by UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Disability.
Unfortunately, the former can be slow, ineffective, and subject to the changing political winds. The recent reduction in scope, court challenges, and eventual staying of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) climate disclosure rules are a prime example of this issue.
In March 2024, the SEC took a significant step by adopting rules which were being debated for several years to enhance and standardize climate-related disclosures for public companies. They required registrants to disclose climate-related risks, material impacts of those risks on their business, mitigation efforts, and the board’s role in assessing and managing such risks. Within days of adopting the rules, however, nine cases were filed challenging them by corporations, states, and NGOs. This led to a voluntary staying of the rules just a month later on April 4, 2024.
Cue in IP. IP serves as a catalyst for innovation, and sustainable innovation is no different. Patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets incentivize inventors, creators, and companies to develop novel solutions to the pressing problems of time whether big or small. Whether it’s a renewable energy technology, sustainable agricultural methods, or life-saving drugs, it is a known fact that IP encourages innovation. Innovation can therefore accelerate progress towards the SDGs, especially when governments lag behind. Technology bridges gaps left by slow or non-existent government action.
In an article we wrote in 2022 on the pending SEC rules and their impact on the IP landscape, we discussed an analysis by LexisNexis (updated most recently as of July 2023) which mapped patenting trends to the SDGs (patents are often used as a proxy for technological investment and development). The analysis showed significant patenting activity in the SDGs related to clean energy, health and well-being, and infrastructure, among others.
SDGs With the Most Sustainable Innovation (2023)
Image by LexisNexis PatentSight:
As shown below by LexisNexis, there is also a strong uptrend in both the quantity as well as overall share of SDG-related patents over the past two decades.
Growth in Quantity (Left) and Share (Right) of SDG-Related Patents
Image by LexisNexis PatentSight:
Beyond just incentivizing innovation, IP fosters collaboration by bringing together like-minded parties with complementary skillsets through licenses and joint ventures. Leveraging the collaborative nature of IP to achieve sustainability goals is therefore a logical fit. This point is not lost on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), whose WIPO GREEN database serves as a free, global innovation catalogue with the goal of connecting climate needs with tangible (intangible?) solutions. Through the WIPO GREEN platform, innovators can post their technologies and be either found manually via the search function or matched automatically using an AI-assisted auto-matching function which will pair them with the respective need.
Despite the ongoing challenges to the SEC's Climate Rules, numerous other pieces of legislation around the world are effectively driving change towards environmental sustainability. Governments are increasingly mandating transparency, traceability, and enhanced reporting for corporations, pushing for a clear view of their operations' environmental impact. For example, the EU's Non-Financial Reporting Directive and the forthcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive require detailed disclosure of sustainability practices and impacts, encouraging better corporate behavior. In this landscape, intellectual property (IP) plays a crucial role by fostering innovation in technologies that assist corporations in meeting these demands. IP enables the development and dissemination of advanced technologies that facilitate accurate environmental reporting, supply chain monitoring, and compliance with stringent environmental standards. These technologies not only help in tracking and reporting carbon footprints and resource usage but also support the adoption of sustainable practices by making them more accessible and economically viable for businesses globally.
Ultimately, IP and technology are twin engines propelling us towards innovative ways of addressing the SDGs. Governments may falter, but innovators, entrepreneurs, and tech pioneers can fill the void. By nurturing IP creation, embracing technological solutions, and still demanding transparency from governments and the private sector, perhaps each successive World IP Day can be brighter than the last.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Noor Al-Banna and Andrea Korney for their insights and expertise that greatly assisted this research.
