Actions to stimulate low-carbon innovation – a global policy priority – are moving full speed ahead. Twenty countries from across the developed and developing world, including the UK, the US, China, India, the United Arab Emirates and Australia, recently signed up to ‘Mission Innovation’ at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, promising to double their public investment in low-carbon energy innovation and to promote increased international cooperation. Alongside this, a global group of 28 key investment players from 10 countries, including Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Richard Branson, are mobilising to deliver ‘truly transformative energy solutions for the future’ as part of the new ‘Energy Breakthrough Coalition’. In addition, the European Commission is developing a strategy to support low-carbon innovation, to be published with the second State of the Energy Union report in late 2016. This policy brief provides evidence to inform these and other initiatives seeking to stimulate low-carbon innovation.