China has made a "rapid rise' over the last 20 years to become one of the leading research nations in green technologies, German media reported on Sunday. In terms of world-class patents, the top 10 percent of patents for a particular technology, China is already in second place, only after the United States. The country has more than tripled its world class green technologies patents to 37,000 since 2017, while the share of the united States, Japan, and the European Union saw declines.