Eurostat, Statistical Office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG

e-mail contact: ESTAT-CIRCULAR-ECONOMY@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the Circular Economy indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards a circular economy on the thematic area of 'competitiveness and innovation'.

Innovation will necessarily play a key role in the transition towards a circular economy, in the development of new technologies, processes, services and business models.

Patent statistics are one of the indicator families widely used to assess technological progress in a specific industrial sector. They are widely accepted as output-oriented indicators on innovation. Recently, for example, the number of patent applications was used as an indicator in the Raw Materials Scoreboard. Development of innovative techniques for waste collection, transportation, storage and in particular for recycling of materials will help to reduce the EU dependence on critical commodities, improve EU resilience to potential materials supply disruptions and will support the competitiveness of domestic industries.

The number of patent families in these domains thus gives an indication of the innovation activity in recycling and materials re-use technologies in the EU, and also in relation to the global context.

The indicator measures the number of patents related to recycling and secondary raw materials. The attribution to recycling and secondary raw materials was done using the relevant codes in the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC). The CPC scheme has been changed / simplified, with codes reclassified to the parent relevant categories. The full list of changes is provided in the Cooperative Patent Classification website.

The term 'patents' refers to patent families, which include all documents relevant to a distinct invention (e.g. applications to multiple authorities), thus preventing multiple counting. A fraction of the family is allocated to each applicant and relevant technology.

Interpretation of the indicator:

Whereas the indicator provides insight into the most relevant innovative recycling technologies, it does not cover all technologies related to waste management, nor other services and business models of the circular economy. It also needs to be noted that not all relevant innovations are or can be patented.

Number of patents.

Number of patents per million inhabitants.

Calendar year.

Indicator from non-ESS source. For assessment of accuracy please refer to the original source (see link to external data source and metadata in “Annexes”).

EPO

Data source: European Patent Office (EPO).

Data provider: Data extracted by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC): Analysis of the online database PATSTAT which is the Worldwide Patents Database managed by the European Patent Office.

Every year

Indicator is updated annually.

> T+2 years

New data points are disseminated within three years after the reference year.

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU Member States plus the United Kingdom and other major investors in energy, such as the USA, Japan, China, South Korea, Canada, Australia, Russia, etc.

EU aggregate is also available.

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States respectively other presented countries.

> 10 years

Presented time series starts in 2000.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is longer than 4 data points.

However, the reclassification of the documents during the periodic revision of the CPC Y02 section codes carried out by EPO influences the whole time series and, in some cases, can even lead to significant changes. More information about this reclassification process is given in Cooperative Patent Classification website.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Commission Staff Working Document.

See table cei_cie020

Eurostat dedicated section on Circular Economy

DG ENV, Implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan

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