Global transformations
A new approach to international co-operation in the area of clean energy technologies is essential for avoiding carbon emissions from future economic development. Sussex researchers are assisting the UK Government in developing a policy proposal for a new international climate change agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
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Low-carbon technology transfer to developing countries
The 2005 G8 summit highlighted the importance of strengthening technology co-operation between developed and developing nations to generate and deploy low-carbon energy options globally. Many developing countries pressed for a new approach to international co-operation in the area of clean energy technologies in order to avoid carbon emissions from future economic development. As a follow-up to the 2005 discussions, the UK Government and the Government of India decided to collaborate in commissioning a study to assess the barriers to the transfer of low-carbon energy technology between developed and developing countries.
Over the past three years, Dr David Ockwell and colleagues in The Sussex Energy Group at the AVÊÓƵ have been leading an international team of researchers, including partners from the Energy and Resources Institute in India and the Institute of Development Studies on the Sussex campus, in a study jointly commissioned by the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests. The aim of the research is to facilitate technological co-operation between developed and developing countries. The research focuses primarily on technology transfer to India but the insights provided also inform more general discussions on lowcarbon technology transfer to developing countries.
Phase I of the research analysed five case studies of low-carbon technologies at different stages of development - LED lighting, hybrid vehicles, coal gasification, biomass including fuel supply chain issues, and improving combustion efficiency.
Outputs of the research highlighted a series of key considerations, including the recognition that relevant policy interventions vary according to the nature of the technology, its stage of commercial development and the political and economic characteristics of the supplier and recipient countries; transfer of low-carbon technologies is a concern as much in terms of its transfer from the research and development stage through to commercialisation as it is in terms of its transfer from developed to developing countries; improving firms' capacity to absorb new technologies is essential to enabling them to take full advantage of new technologies; and that new internationally collaborative approaches to low-carbon technology research, development, demonstration and deployment may have a role to play in overcoming intellectual property rights issues, as well as facilitating more effective development of new, low-carbon technological capacity in developing countries.
The study findings have been presented at several meetings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the AVÊÓƵ has now become a first point of call for many policy-makers interested in developing effective policy in this area.
The Sussex Energy Group has now completed Phase II of the study, focusing in particular on issues related to intellectual property rights and collaborative mechanisms to facilitate research, development, demonstration and deployment for low-carbon technologies. As a result of this work, Sussex researchers have been asked to assist the UK Government in developing their negotiating position on technology for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December where a new international climate change agreement will be decided upon to replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.
For more information please contact Dr David Ockwell at d.g.ockwell@sussex.ac.uk
Rüdiger's perspective
'I was looking for a challenge that widened my understanding of the relevance of academic research. As one of the case studies within the project considered the transfer of Photovoltaic Technology to India, my supervisors asked me to write the chapters on the development of the Indian Photovoltaic Industry, the industry's innovation dynamic and the importance of international technology transfer. I'd previously carried out fieldwork on the subject as part of my doctoral research on international technology transfer and the Global Environment Facility. As my research interest is strongly related to the contribution of international governance to innovation in developing countries I hope to work one day in a related academic institution that also carries consultancy work for designing real-life policy processes.'
Rüdiger Haum
DPhil student
