This brief examines how R&D spillovers are associated with firm-level greenhouse gas emissions in Finnish energy-intensive manufacturing. The results show that R&D spillovers from other firms within the same industry are more strongly associated with lower emissions than the firm’s own R&D activity. This result highlights the role of innovation spillovers and knowledge diffusion in emissions abatement. However, the direction and magnitude of R&D spillovers differ across industries depending on their R&D intensity. In the chemical industry that has high R&D intensity, inter-industry R&D spillovers are associated with lower emissions, whereas in the pulp and paper and basic metals industries, inter-industry R&D spillovers are associated with higher emissions. These results demonstrate that technology spillovers do not automatically lower emissions, but can also contribute to higher emissions. Our findings reveal an important channel of inter-industry R&D spillovers through material flows, highlighting the pivotal role of the chemical industry for the GHG abatement in the pulp and paper production and non-metallic minerals industry.
