The IPE of Renewable Energy Production. What Determines the Green Global Division of Labour?

The low carbon energy transition entails opportunities for green technology patent innovators, manufacturers or installers (IRENA 2019). Lachapelle, MacNeil and Paterson (2017) concluded that different countries specialized along the lines of these three opportunities. This paper aims to further investigate the global division of labour in renewable energy production by asking how countries strategically position themselves in this emerging global division of labor. In order to answer this question, the paper econometrically assesses the correlation between country‐level indicators highlighting potentially strategic state actions and a country’s position within renewable energy value chains. The latter is measured by installed capacity, number of patents and manufacturing capacity data for different renewable energy technologies, based on panel data for the last two decades provided by IRENA, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and the World Bank. The paper thereby contributes to the current discussions on how the energy transition will alter the global distribution of value (creation) and, more broadly, to the emerging debate on the international political economy of going low carbon.