Assessing and rationalizing the management of a portfolio of clean technologies: experience from a French environmental fund and a World Bank Cleaner Production demonstration project in China

Industrial pollution is intrinsically linked to the adoption and development of technological alternatives. Environmental policies from regulation to economic instruments, in industrialized nations as well as in developing countries and in transition economies, cannot ignore the technological dimension when they aim at controlling or preventing the pollution generated by industrial activities. The implementation of cleaner technologies has been examined here for a French environmental fund (the water agency Agence de lʹEau Rhin-Meuse) and for a World Bank Cleaner Production demonstration project in China. A three-dimensional assessment methodology, including (1) the level of innovation, (2) the type of process targeted, and (3) a process flow-oriented categorization of technologies, has been developed and has identified significant heterogeneity for the two venues. Using Fosterʹs theory on innovation S-curves, three kinds of interpretation are proposed to distinguish what is due to intrinsic differences existing between the various technological choices, from what could be explained by resistance to change inside firms or to policy distortions. Thus, this assessment focuses on evaluating the performance of financial assistance for furthering environmental policy, identifying technological alternatives which should be particularly promoted, and monitoring the evolution of the various technological choices over time.