BEIJING, July 19 -- China has become an important contributor to global innovation in green and low-carbon technologies, according to the country's top IP regulator.

"The latest statistics indicate that China is an important contributor to global innovation in green and low-carbon technologies," said Ge Shu, a senior official of the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA), at a press conference on Tuesday.

He added that Chinese patentees received 178,000 invention patents in green and low-carbon technologies from 2016 to 2022, accounting for 31.9 percent of the global total.

Thirteen Chinese enterprises and research institutes entered the list of global top 50 holders of green and low-carbon technology invention patents, including major state-owned enterprises such as State Grid Corporation of China and China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd. and private companies such as Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited and BYD Company Limited.

In recent years, China has seen incredible growth in the field of innovative energy storage technologies. The number of invention patents granted in electrochemical energy storage in China increased from 4,300 in 2016 to 13,000 in 2022, now accounting for 44.9 percent of the global total.

Ge said that the NIPA will actively promote the transformation and application of green technology patents to better serve green development.