OECD Reports Most Active Nations in Environmental Research

According to a just released report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, New Zealand’s government is the world’s most environmentally friendly country for government sponsored research, spending 13.39 percent the total government budget for environmental research and development activities.

The OECD cited Canada in second place with 4.38 percent, Australia third with 4.11 percent and Spain at 4.07 percent. Taking up firth place was Portugal with 3.69 percent, trailed by Hungary's 3.52 percent, and South Korea came in seventh with 3.31 percent, Yonhap news agency reported.

Russia ranked at the bottom of the countries surveyed, devoting just 0.14 percent for governmental environmental research activities, while Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United States and Japan all ranked below one percent.

The report noted, "Related R&D spending has been on the upturn as the importance of renewable energy and energy efficiency gained traction since the 1990s."

Seeking to blunt criticism, the OECD said that the figures don't directly reflect the outcome of a country's green growth projects but rather looks into its government’s willingness to invest in promoting green growth.

The report nevertheless noted several optimistic developments, emphasizing that several countries started to make significant financial investments to develop technologies for mitigating mid-term climate changes, focusing on boosting production of solar energy hydrogen fuel cells as well as electricity-powered vehicles.

By. Joao Peixe, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com