• Mitigation

Climate change mitigation

Technology is critical for human development and progress. The fight against climate change will not be won without a revolution in the use of existing low carbon technology and a wave of new inventions. This paper presents views of non-governmental organisations, private sector and academic institutions from eight countries on the barriers to the development and transfer of low carbon technology.

The report discusses that success at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009 depends on an agreement being reached on all the areas currently under negotiation. However, without a firm commitment to develop and transfer new technologies, with Industrial countries financial support, consensus will be difficult to reach and in practical terms emissions will be hard to reduce.

The key findings in the paper noted include:

• the emphasis in the technology should be placed not only on mitigating and adapting to climate change but also on sustainable human development
• lack of access to finance is a barrier to technology development and deployment
• the absence of a long term low carbon policy framework and coherent set of policies is a major impediment to the development and deployment of low carbon technology
• knowledge and capacity are as important as equipment
• intellectual property rights (IPR) need careful attention; in some cases stronger observance and enforcement of IPR might encourage technology developers to roll out new technology in more jurisdictions more quickly. In others the costs of licensing could be an impediment.

Recommendations given are:

• put technology at the heart of climate negotiations, more emphasis should be placed on technology in the climate change debate especially in the ongoing UNFCCC negotiations
• create focused incentives for technology deployment
• link technology and finance in international talks
• develop national low-carbon technology strategies, beyond the UNFCCC negotiations
• governments should increase their support for research and development (R&D) at the national level
• establish joint innovation for future technologies by developing a network of low carbon research
• Development initiatives could help in the future to overcome the barrier posed by Intellectual property
• reward technology risk-takers with strong intellectual property.

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