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Eco-innovation plays a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions. Exploiting the consolidated IPAT/STIRPAT framework, this paper studies whether a relationship exists between green technological change (measured as stock of green patent) and both CO2 emissions and emission efficiency (CO2/VA). To investigate this relation, a rich panel covering 95 Italian provinces from 1990 to 2010 is exploited. The main regression results suggest that green technology has not yet played a significant role in promoting environmental protection, although it improved significantly environmental productivity. Notably, this result is not driven by regional differences, and the main evidence is consistent among different areas of the country.

Waste production is increasing steadily over time in developed as well as in developing countries. The growth is still more or less proportional to that of GDP for most countries and regions. The evidence also suggests that a significant amount of waste is produced each year in OECD countries (over 4 billion tonnes). In the EU, waste-related Directives, such as 2008/98/CE, now call for waste reduction as the most preferred option to tackle this problem, while in the past attention was mainly focused on recycling, recovery and disposal targets. Also, as suggested by the European Commission, economic growth and globalization are boosting waste movements across borders, involving potentially hazardous wastes. National and international institutions are reacting with mixed effectiveness to these issues, while the theoretical and empirical literature has developed substantially in recent years. Theoretical analyses have, for example, suggested designs of optimal policy packages in first and second best situations, holding attention to non-competitive