The foreseeable outcomes of the transition towards low-carbon economies are multiple and affect in different ways policy-makers, world regions, firms and consumers. It has long been acknowledged that at the core of this transition stands environmental innovation which are developed to enhance the long-term sustainability of economic growth.
The main pillars of this study are two. First, environmental challenges are different, and so are the responses that are needed to tackle them. The main consequence of this is that the current focus on green technology as a homogeneous block of undifferentiated entities is misleading.
Second, the adaptation of production and distribution systems is ultimately carried through by human labour and analysing the transition to environmentally sustainable societies requires a thorough understanding of how work activities are designed, implemented and changed to accommodate new policy imperatives and/or new technological opportunities.
Empirical evidence on either on these two pillars is scant or fragmented. The present study seeks to fill these gaps by developing a thorough analysis of the life cycle of green technologies, and of the corresponding adaptations observed in the skills’ base of the the workforce.
Our view is that innovation consists of a large spectrum of possibilities, meaning that technologies go through various phases of the life cycle, from emergence to maturity. The associated issue is that labour market outcomes are equally diverse, and encompass the appearance of new jobs, the extinction of obsolete ones, as well as qualitative transformations in the work content of continuing occupations.
The thesis seeks to gain greater understanding of quantitative and qualitative features of green innovation by delving into the connection between green technology development and the changing skill endowment of a region embedded in the workforce.