As inovações ambientais na América Latina: um mapeamento da pesquisa científica latino-americana

Abstract

The challenges posed by the harm caused to the environment are enormous and, although the impacts are felt across the planet, for some nations the adversities will be more painful. This is the case of Latin American countries, which to the well-known structural problems (inequality, poverty, lack of infrastructure and technological lag) will be added to the effects of climate change. Thus, the objective of the paper was to map scientific research that addressed environmental innovations in the context of Latin America. The premise was that these innovations, capable of mitigating environmental damage, are an important means of promoting sustainable development in the region. The application of bibliometric techniques to examine 173 articles made it possible to observe important aspects related to the contribution of academia to the research agenda of ecoinnovations in the study region. The results highlight: research on eco-innovation in Brazil (main geographical area); the centrality of industrial activities in investigations; and the prevalence of the usual topics (barriers and drivers of eco-innovation), although recently new themes have emerged (circular economy and open innovation). As the main contribution (in addition to the originality of the proposed bibliographic mapping) the study forwards a set of elements for future investigations about the potential of eco-innovations in the region