Easier Said Than Done: Sharing Low-Carbon Technologies with Developing Countries

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While everyone seems to agree that climate change is a real and pressing issue that needs solutions, little agreement seems to be coming in terms of how to go about it.

Among the key weapons against climate change is the implementation of large-scale low-carbon technologies around the world, though several significant obstacles impede this progression, according to a report released this month by the Center for American Progress, a member of the Global Climate Network, which also collaborated on the report.

The report, Breaking Through on Technology: Overcoming the Barriers to the Development of Low-Carbon Technology, contains interviews of over 100 people (officials of companies in the private sector and government policymakers) in eight different countries (Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States) done between January and March 2009.

The names of the interviewees are listed in the Appendix, but their comments are not directly attributed to them as quotes in the report. This approach might have been used to get more candid answers from them. The report loosely attributes information to interviewees in terms of stating positions and the countries they come from.

All agreed that the biggest impediments in the sharing of low-carbon technologies between developed and developing countries were government policy, financing, and intellectual property rights.

The overall picture of what should happen under the articles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is that developed countries should have an obligation to “take all practical steps to promote, facilitate and finance, as appropriate, the transfer of, or access to, environmentally sound technologies and know-how” to developing countries.

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What happens in actuality according to interviewees is that “a whole range of technologies- low-carbon or otherwise- developed in one jurisdiction are regularly transferred to another through trade, inward investment, licensing, mergers and acquisitions, pirating, and by other means.”

Experts in the report also cited that one of the barriers to the transfer of low-carbon technologies as it’s recommended in the UNFCCC is that there “is no one policy fits all solution” to the problem.

The report states that, “an absence of a strong domestic policy frameworks (either sector specific, such as feed-in tariffs, nor across sectors, such as carbon pricing) and accompanying regulations and incentives to encourage the development and widespread use of low-carbon technology in any one economy is one of the most profound barriers of all.”

The concerns expressed in the areas of finance were that “both cross-economy policies, such as taxation or changes in energy tariffs, and regulations will increase costs, which will ultimately be levied on the taxpayer or consumer.

“This makes low-carbon technology policy potentially unpopular and therefore politically unattractive. This is likely to be the case in developing countries where public expenditure is highly constrained and consumers are profoundly sensitive to price increases.”

A concern that reared its head relating to intellectually property was patent rights. Among the potential solutions suggested in this area was “the need for IP-related costs to be met by government or through intergovernmental agreement (suggested by India).

“The creation of international research centres supported by public funds that could develop technology free of IP restrictions was considered by Brazil.”

Among the solutions considered regarding costs, “all countries’ interviews reflected the need to scale up financing for low-carbon technology, especially using state-funded programmes to trigger private sector interest.

“Specific financing policies were called for by some interviewees, such as feed-in tariffs (suggested by Australia); investment in a smart grid (suggested by the United States); a scaling up of the international carbon market (suggested by South Africa); and an enlargement of existing incentives and an introduction of tradable renewable energy certificates (suggested by India).”

Regarding overall government policy solutions, “many saw potential in the International Renewable Energy Agency as the main international hub for clean technology information (suggested by South Africa and Germany) or the creation of a secretariat under the UNFCCC responsible for the centralization of information regarding available technology around the world and for the development of IP-free technologies.”

The report closed, as expected, with concerns very much alive, lots of suggestions for solutions, and a starting points for future discussions, which concern each and every person on the planet. We all live here.