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This event discussed the need for financing and technology transfer (TT) to enable adaptation and mitigation actions in developing countries, including sectoral approaches and institutional TT mechanisms under UNFCCC.
Meena Raman, Third World Network, highlighted that TT does not simply consist of the sale of technologies from the North to the South, but should build domestic capacity to manufacture technologies appropriate to developing countries' needs. She reviewed key aspects of the G-77/China proposal for a technology mechanism under the UNFCCC to make relevant technologies available to developing countries. She also stressed the need to maximize the use of flexibilities provided for in the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, and assess the availability of public domain technologies for low-carbon development pathways in developing countries.
 
Mozarul Alam Babu, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, noted that mitigation technology development and transfer depends on future reduction commitment targets, while adaptation TT is influenced by countries' level of vulnerability and adaptive capacity. He stressed that the transfer of inefficient technologies should be discouraged, while the deployment of known technologies from one area to another may be useful for adaptation. He underscored the need to strengthen enabling environments, institutional capacity and national centers of excellence in developing countries.
Tilman Santarius, Wuppertal Institute, highlighted aspects of the TT agenda in need of further consideration, including: capacity building for developed countries on how to maximize global benefits from TT investments; the development of concrete mechanisms for TT; emerging TT opportunities; and policy coherence in industrialized countries. He underscored that the export crediting system must be realigned with TT objectives, and the need to distinguish between goals that can be achieved within UNFCCC and those that must be addressed outside the Convention.
Steve Sawyer, Global Wind Energy Council, presented on effective renewable energy TT and how to design it in a pro-poor way. He noted that the objective of TT is the maximum diffusion of existing technologies; cooperative research and development on future technologies; and concessional or grant access for least developed countries (LDCs) to mitigation and adaptation technologies. He stressed that multilateral institutions should invest their money to build an enabling environment for companies to operate, rather than directly engage in the provision of renewable energy.
In the ensuing discussion, participants highlighted: the scarcity of knowledge regarding relevant state-of-the-art technologies; issues surrounding intellectual property rights, including waivers for LDCs to use proprietary technologies for adaptation purposes; the unprofitability of small markets; and domestic efforts to develop national manufacturing capacity.
Click here to download the webcast of the side event and the presentations.
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