The Green Technology Book for 2025 presents an overview of the global state of innovation in disaster preparedness and response. By showcasing concrete, practical technologies, it highlights how communities can better anticipate, withstand and recover from intensifying climate-driven disasters. The book addresses the needs of diverse end-users from local governments and humanitarian organizations to community groups and households, thereby making the role of technology accessible and actionable.
This year’s Green Technology Book does not comprehensively cover all disasters, but instead focuses on those that have been affected and exacerbated by climate change, and for which appropriate technologies are available. The disasters addressed are related to water (storms, flooding and landslides); dry weather (wildfires and drought); and extreme temperatures (heat and cold). Disaster response logistics across these three thematic areas are surveyed in Part 4, which showcases technologies for emergency operations and infrastructure, communications and digital coordination, and financial risk and insurance.
The UNDRR disaster cycle encompasses the following four key elements: mitigation (or prevention/reduction) → preparedness → response → recovery. This concept is widely used by the UNDRR and disaster management agencies worldwide. The 2025 edition includes technologies and solutions targeted at disaster response, but also toward disaster preparedness. This reflects the shifting focus of disaster management agencies and the larger humanitarian and development community, which has increasingly been placing greater emphasis on disaster risk reduction and preparedness since the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015. It is widely acknowledged that greater efforts must be channeled into risk reduction and preparation for disasters, as threats continue to increase owing to factors like climate change. And because the costs of overlooking these challenges are significant and increasing every year.
The Green Technology Book welcomes the opportunity to highlight a diverse and inclusive set of technologies ranging from simple low-tech solutions to advanced digital technologies. Often the best technology is the one available locally, but not widely known. It may be nature-based or built on traditional knowledge and insights. These are vital solutions, especially when considering the local context in which disasters strike, and the specific vulnerabilities of the affected populations. The Green Technology Book is more than a catalogue meant for inspiration – it is a living project to which everyone can contribute. This publication links to the free public WIPO GREEN Database of needs and green technologies, where users can create a profile and share climate solutions and needs.
How we wrote the book
For the purposes of this publication, we considered a broad set of scientific articles and gray literature, together with technology databases developed by private, public and civil society entities and organizations. Search strings used included broad terms related to disaster response paired with key terms for the four thematic areas, and key terms related to specific technologies (“drone” “IoT” “satellite” and so on). Translation engines enabled us to search articles in several languages to ensure a broad geographical spread.
Owners of the technologies identified were contacted, and all technologies uploaded to the WIPO GREEN Database of needs and green technologies, either by the technology owner themselves or by us at WIPO.
How we found the technologies
Throughout the publication, we operate with three concepts: innovation, solution, and technology. Although sometimes used almost interchangeably, they do have different meanings. We here use the term innovation to cover all intellectual creativity that could result in a solution. Solution is broadly taken to mean the deployment of an innovation output to solve a specific challenge. The third concept, technology, is a broad term, but we apply it more narrowly to mean any physical entity or technique, with or without additional equipment, that is deployed to resolve a specific challenge. We cover technologies that range from the very simple to the highly complex. Often the scope of disaster response technologies is expanded to include enabling mechanisms such as ownership and the institutional arrangements that pertain to that technology (e.g., insurance mechanisms and community platforms). However, while recognizing the importance of such mechanisms, the primary focus is on tangible technologies or actual techniques.
It is important to emphasize that the technologies presented here have not been tested or in any way vetted by WIPO, and that we rely on publicly available material. Inclusion within the Green Technology Book is therefore not a recommendation of a particular technology. Technologies presented should instead be seen simply as examples of a technology area, and there may be many other similar offerings that to our knowledge are in no way inferior. Photos illustrating the various technologies are reproduced with permission from the technology owners. When such permission could not be obtained, relevant stock-photos or AI generated images have been used instead. Therefore photos of technologies may not always represent the actual technology example described. Technology owners can freely upload their technology to the WIPO GREEN Database and in doing so become part of the project.
The appropriateness of a technology is often highly context-specific and relates to factors other than geographical location. Therefore no recommendations on where, when or how the technologies might be suitable have been provided. Such an assessment should always be made with the involvement of local experts and stakeholders.
The following criteria were used when selecting technologies for the Green Technology Book:
relevance for disaster preparedness and response;
relevance for the disaster themes and logistics: 1) water-related, 2) dry weather related, 3) extreme temperatures; and 4) disaster response logistics.
pertinence to:
a product or service available for purchase or licensing;
a product or service available for free/open source;
a guidebook on application of a method or technique;
a research project or similar (for horizon technologies).
The following additional factors were also taken into consideration:
anticipated impact from implementation;
availability of sufficient quality information or third-party endorsements;
market availability (for proven and frontier technologies);
cost in relation to impact;
geographical balance;
business balance (large- and small-scale businesses, humanitarian organizations, start-ups, research teams, non-governmental organizations and so on);
no harm principle.
Technologies have been divided into three broad groups in order to indicate their maturity and availability. Proven technologies are those that have been on the market for some time and therefore rely on a tried and tested concept. Frontier technologies are those that are available, but still relatively new, and as such possibly less validated within a real-world setting. Horizon technologies are those new concepts currently at the research or development stage expected to become available within a few years’ time.
Technologies have been classified in order to provide an easy guide to relevance for a reader. We have aimed for a broad representation of technologies at various levels of complexity and stages of readiness. Technologies are classified as having either a low, medium or high level of complexity. This is an indication only and does not adhere to a strict definition of complexity; rather, it reflects the level of human, material and monetary resources required to implement the solution in question. Meanwhile, technology maturity is broadly assessed according to the quasi-standard Technology Readiness Level (TRL) definition. According to this measure, horizon technologies have the lowest readiness level, but are nonetheless close to full development (TRL 2–6), whereas proven and frontier technologies have been validated and are ready to be scaled-up, if this has not already been done (TLR 7–9).
We hope you will be inspired by the creativity, ingenuity and diversity of the technologies presented here. We welcome any feedback and suggestions, which can be sent to us through the WIPO GREEN website.
Disclaimer
This publication, WIPO, and WIPO GREEN are in no way affiliated with any of the featured companies. Nor does this publication imply that other non-featured companies or technology solutions do not exist. All content in this publication is provided in good faith and based on information provided directly from the providers and/or using publicly available materials. Photos of technologies may not necessarily depict the actual technology. Therefore WIPO and WIPO GREEN disclaim any warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information provided. WIPO and WIPO GREEN are not responsible for any negative outcomes as a result of actions taken based on information in this publication.
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