Green Energy Patents Boost Company Profitability
For nuclear energy, the increase can be up to 1.6%
An ESG strategy—Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance—not only helps preserve the environment but can also generate tangible income. Thus, the use of renewable energy sources (RES) and green technologies in the energy sector enhances return on investment and profitability. In contrast, higher CO2 emissions result in lower financial performance. This has been demonstrated in a collaborative study by the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences and the European University at St. Petersburg. Their findings have been published in Frontiers in Environmental Science.
In recent years, green energy technologies have made significant advancements. Governments and businesses invest hundreds of billions of dollars in developing renewable energy sources (RES), nuclear energy, and electric transportation. In 2020, their share accounted for 40% of all investments in the energy sector, totalling $400 billion. In the European Union, spending on green energy is 3.5 times higher than on traditional energy. Meanwhile, China has reduced investments in the gas and oil sectors by 40% to focus on developing RES. Increasingly, research demonstrates that adopting green technologies can have a positive impact on company profitability.
Elena Makeeva, Associate Professor at the HSE Faculty of Economics, Konstantin Popov, Research Assistant at the HSE Corporate Finance Centre, and Olga Teplova, Research Fellow at the European University at St. Petersburg, have investigated how investments in green energy impact the profitability of energy companies in the BRICS countries. The researchers studied 63 largest firms in the BRICS countries and examined their key financial performance indicators, including return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), and market capitalisation.
CO2 emissions and patents related to three primary types of green energy—renewable energy technologies, combustion technologies with mitigation potential, and nuclear energy technologies—were considered as independent variables. China leads among BRICS member countries in all types of patents, with its share reaching 94% for patents in the field of renewable energy and 89% for patents related to hybrid energy systems.
The model also incorporated the company's revenue and investments, along with the per capita GDP of the company's home country, as controls. The authors constructed several models to establish a connection between investments in green technologies, carbon dioxide emissions, and the return on assets and investments, and market capitalisation of companies.
They have found that higher CO2 emissions significantly reduce company profitability and negatively affect market capitalisation: a 1% increase in carbon dioxide emissions results in nearly a 2% decrease in company profitability. The return on investment decreases even further, by 5% to 7%, along with a decrease in market capitalisation. Conversely, the more 'green energy' patents a company registers, the greater its profitability. The return on assets increases by 0.7% on average, and patents in the field of nuclear energy result in the largest increase of up to 1.6%. The return on investment has been found to increase by 2% to 3%. The researchers note that patents for renewable energy technologies contribute significantly only to ROIC, whereas combustion technologies with mitigation potential and nuclear technologies positively influence all financial performance indicators of companies. The authors also advocate for further advancements in nuclear power technology, since a nuclear power plant is a powerful, stable, and low carbon energy source with a long operational lifespan.
However, it should be noted that investments in green energy typically involve long-term commitments and do not yield immediate financial returns. This study demonstrates that businesses prioritising social and environmental responsibility in their operations can eventually achieve significant profits.
Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics, HSE University
The development of green energy should be a priority for BRICS countries, and investing in infrastructure and improving legislation are crucial factors for an expansion of low-carbon technologies in the electric power industry.
See also:
HSE Economists Use Search Queries to Forecast Birth Rates
Researchers from the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences have shown that the accuracy of birth rate forecasts for Russia can be improved by almost 50% by incorporating the dynamics of online search queries related to pregnancy and childbirth into forecasting models. In the best-performing models, the forecasting error fell from 4.6% to 3.2%. The findings have been published in Populations and Economics.
HSE Researchers Discover Who Eats Out in Russia—And Why
Around one-third of Russians (31.3%) rarely eat out or buy ready-made meals. The core group of active consumers—those who eat out or purchase prepared food almost every day or several times a week—accounts for only about 9% of the population. These are the findings of a study conducted by the HSE Institute for Social Policy. According to the researchers eating out is no longer a marker of high social status in Russia.
Ancient Craniiform Brachiopod: A Newly Discovered Species with a Unique Shell Shape and Lifestyle
Scientists from HSE University, MSU, and Tallinn University of Technology have studied a fossil species of ancient brachiopods that lived in a warm sea in what is now northern Estonia more than 445 million years ago. These ancient brachiopods developed a cup-shaped shell with a protective 'cap' that shielded them from overgrowth by other marine organisms. The study has been published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
Scientists Develop Bacterium-Sized Microlaser
An international team of researchers, including scientists from HSE University–St Petersburg, has developed microlasers that emit deep-ultraviolet light at a wavelength of 255 nanometres. The devices operate at room temperature, and the smallest of them measures just two micrometres in diameter—roughly the size of a bacterium. These microlasers could be used in sensors, spectroscopic systems, photonic chips, and communication devices. The paper has been published in Optics & Laser Technology.
HSE Develops App for Assessing Phonological Processing in Children
Researchers at the HSE Centre for Language and Brain have developed a new digital tool for assessing children's phonological processing skills—the ZARYA (Sound Analysis of the Russian Language) test battery. It is the first standardised application in Russia designed to provide a fast and reliable assessment of children's ability to distinguish speech sounds, retain them in working memory, and perform phonemic analysis. The app runs on Android tablets and smartphones and is available for download from RuStore. Details of the test validation have been published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
Researchers Discover How Spelling Errors Slow Down Reading in Russian
Psycholinguists from the Centre for Language and Brain at HSE University–St Petersburg have shown that words that are frequently misspelled are processed more slowly by readers, even when presented with the correct spelling. The researchers confirmed this effect for the first time using Russian-language materials and found that response speed is most strongly linked to how confidently individuals can distinguish the correct spelling of a word from an incorrect one. The study has been published in The Mental Lexicon.
Scientists Discover Why Europium 'Misbehaves'
Europium is a rare-earth metal responsible for the pure red glow in displays and other luminescent materials. For a long time, however, it refused to emit light when surrounded by certain organic molecules known as acylpyrazolone ligands. Chemists have now uncovered the reason: in europium complexes with these ligands, a 'black window' appears—a charge-transfer state in which the energy absorbed by the ligand is dissipated as heat rather than emitted as light. Understanding this mechanism opens the way to designing more efficient red-emitting materials for displays, fluorescent thermometers, and chemical sensors. The results have been published in Dalton Transactions.
HSE Economists Reveal How the Wage Gap Emerges Among Vocational School Graduates
HSE researchers examined the careers of 600,000 graduates of Russian secondary vocational education programmes and found that at the start of their careers, the gender wage gap reaches 23%, doubling after three years. This disparity is largely due to male and female students choosing different occupations when enrolling in vocational schools. These were the findings made by Sergey Roshchin, Natalya Yemelina, and Ksenia Rozhkova from of the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences. The article has been published in Educational Studies.
HSE Researchers Make Aldehydes Perform Dual Function
Chemists from HSE University have discovered a way to carry out a reductive addition reaction without using an external reducing agent. Instead, the required 'resource' is supplied by the aldehyde itself, one of the reaction participants. This approach helps prevent unwanted side reactions, reduces toxicity, and simplifies the production and synthesis of organic molecules, including those used in the manufacture of medicines. The study has been published in Journal of Catalysis.
HSE Scientists Explain Why Findings in Autism Research Differ
Researchers from the Cognitive Health and Intelligence Centre at HSE University conducted the first-ever systematic review of studies on the specifics of emotion-from-motion perception in autism. The review showed that differences found between autistic and non-autistic individuals are largely associated with the experimental design and the types of tasks given to study participants. The review findings have been published in Research in Autism.