The EPO together with UNEP have conducted a joint study, with the support of OECD's statistical analysis capabilities, and published the results in a report entitled 'Patents and clean energy technologies in Africa'. This report focuses on the patent landscape for clean energy technologies in Africa, as one area of the developing world which has vast potential clean energy resources, and could greatly benefit from use and technology transfer of clean energy technologies. It follows on from a first study which analysed global patenting trends for clean energy technology, using the Y02 classification scheme, entitled "Patents and clean energy: bridging the gap between evidence and policy".

This study highlights the role of the patent system, particularly its patent information services, which identify approximately 1.5-million patent documents relating to climate change mitigation through the EPO's dedicated Y02 classification scheme and make these available via the internet on Espacenet, free of charge.

At the same time, less than 1% of the world's clean energy technology related patent applications from 1980 to 2009 have been filed in Africa.