"Green" innovations open up fundamentally new opportunities for socio-economic development and improving the quality of life.

Failure to use technological potential will have long-term negative consequences. This is stated in the new report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The organization estimates that in 2030 the global market for 17 advanced green technologies (including artificial intelligence, the Internet of things, electric vehicles) will amount to more than 9.5 trillion US dollars. In the period 2018–2021 total green technology exports from developed countries increased from $60 billion to $156 billion, and from developing countries from $57 billion to $75 billion. In just three years, the share of developing countries in global technology exports fell from 48% to 33%.

The publication presents the "advanced technology readiness index". The experts assessed the innovative development of 166 countries. The leaders are the United States, Sweden, Singapore, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The Russian Federation is ranked 31st. Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa are the least willing to embrace advanced technology and risk missing out on current technological opportunities.

To bridge the technological divide, UNCTAD is calling on governments to pay more attention to investment in digital infrastructure development, R&D and low-carbon projects, stimulate consumer demand for green goods and increase international cooperation.