An Important and Cheap Component of a Sustainable and Strategic COVID-19 Green Recovery Package

The COVID-19 recovery response from the UK government should include increased and well-targeted R&D investments to foster the energy transition and a more sustainable economy.

Public R&D investments are well-known to yield important economic benefits, and most evidence suggests that some of these benefits may be even larger for energy or climate-related R&D. Despite this, at just 1.7% of GDP, the UK currently invests too little in R&D compared to its peers, in terms of both public and private investment. It has a lower R&D intensity compared to the EU28 average while being much lower compared to the USA, South Korea, and Japan. There are many factors underlying the low productivity in the UK; the comparatively low UK R&D intensity is likely to be an important contributor....