Cleantech clusters and the promotion of the low carbon transition: criteria for success and evidence from Copenhagen, Masdar and online platforms

Anthropogenic climate change and energy security are considerable societal and economic problems. The scalable expansion of clean technologies (cleantech) is urgently required to mitigate these problems. With international negotiations to control climate change looking more polemical than ever and economic austerity threatening to demote the low carbon transition, cluster development is a cost-effective option that could promote cleantech, independent of these potentially destabilizing variables. This paper contextualizes innovation and cluster theory within the cleantech sphere and compares Silicon Valley and Regional Development Agencies to highlight how clusters and economic transitions can evolve under different political and societal circumstances. It also analyses the Copenhagen Climate Cluster, the Masdar Initiative and online clusters to determine external and internal factors that could contribute to their success or failure, and outlines criteria, or prerequisites and successful strategies, for ...