The operational model for analyzing the TWIN transition (Green and Digital) developed in this project will be finalized in the spring of 2026. The current phase, in addition to working on conceptual modeling, remains focused on identifying, collecting, and processing the data required for building the “TWIN R&D” model. Three broad categories of data are involved, corresponding respectively to green and digital technologies, economy/employment, and energy/GHG emissions. Furthermore, the model’s geographical and sectoral coverage should provide insights into two crucial aspects of the TWIN transition analysis: Where do innovations in green and digital technologies originate? And where do GHG emissions come from?
Focusing on the first aspect, the work carried out during the first year of the project on R&D and patent data covers 45 countries and 25 manufacturing sectors (plus J62 – Computer programming) that significantly contribute to the development of green and digital technologies, including each individual EU-27 country. This ensures nearly complete coverage of green and digital R&D investments and patent production, which are geographically highly concentrated.
Figure: Top 10 contributors to green and digital R&D and patent worldwide (2022)
The figure above shows that in 2022, the top 10 countries accounted for approximately 88% of all R&D investments and produced about 84% of all patents, including 85%, 91%, and 87% of green, old digital, and new digital patents, respectively. Similarly, contributions to green and digital technologies are highly concentrated at the sectoral level, with the top 10 sectors producing 95%, 99%, and 99.5% of all green, old digital, and new digital patents, respectively.
Based on these initial observations, an inventory of publicly available databases was conducted to retrieve Global Multi-Regional Input-Output (GMRIO) tables (see below) detailed enough in terms of regional and country coverage to represent both the world’s top 10 contributors to green and digital technologies and the top 10 GHG-emitting countries. For this purpouse, the following databases were identified: EXIOBASE, FIGARO, OECD-ICIO, and ADB-MRIO.
Table: GMRIOs available for building the TWIN R&D model
Among these four, the FIGARO database developed by EUROSTAT is the preferred choice for reasons of transparency, statistical robustness, and regular updates. The FIGARO tables are also consistent with national accounts macro-aggregates, such as final consumption, gross fixed capital formation, and trade flows. Additionally, they offer the advantage of detailing the 25 sectors identified as the main contributors to green and digital technologies. However, one limitation is that, among the top 10 innovation-leading countries, FIGARO groups Taiwan with China and does not include Israel. Regarding the top 10 GHG-emitting countries, Iran and Saudi Arabia are missing. Final decisions are still pending to address these limitations and to determine the data sources that will be used for energy and GHG emissions data.
