Environmental efficiency of disaggregated energy R&D expenditures in OECD: a bootstrap DEA approach

Two essential topics of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are accessible which are clean energy (SDG-7) and climate change action (SDG-13). Developments and innovations in energy technologies play an essential role in achieving these goals. Therefore, any country should use energy R&D expenditures, which are the primary source of energy innovation, most optimally. This paper aims to investigate the environmental efficiency of R&D expenditures for energy efficiency, renewable energy, hydro and fuel cells, fossil energy, nuclear energy, and other power and storage technologies in OECD countries using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and bootstrap DEA. Estimation findings indicate that only the USA ensures the environmental efficiency in energy R&D expenditures among OECD countries. Although Japan, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy cannot provide environmental efficiency in energy R&D, their scores are very close to the efficiency frontier. Portugal, Hungary, and Slovak Republic are the countries with the lowest environmental efficiency in energy R&D expenditures. At the end of the investigation, this paper also provides an empirical estimation of the extent to which inefficient countries should change their R&D spending to achieve efficiency.

Automated summary

The research focuses on the environmental efficiency of energy R&D expenditures in OECD countries, revealing that only the USA maintains environmental efficiency in this area, while other countries have room for improvement.