Lack of technology transfer jeopardizes climate targets

The industrialized countries have pledged to provide 100 billion dollars per year from public and private sources for climate financing from 2020. Technology transfer is particularly important here: developing and emerging countries not only need money for the expansion of sustainable technologies, but also knowledge about low-carbon technologies.

This goal has not yet been achieved - and not only because climate financing is lacking. "Most patents for low-carbon technologies are owned by companies in industrialized countries. This gives them a major competitive advantage. They only share their knowledge when it is advantageous for them," says Andreas Goldthau from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V. (IASS) and the University of Erfurt, co-author of a study on this topic. Goldthau cites China as the only emerging country to date that has successfully attracted technology transfer through foreign direct investment. In order to tap into the Chinese market, companies were prepared to "transfer" their technologies, i.e. pass on knowledge.

China's recipe for success is only transferable to a limited extent

China's success in building a low-carbon technology sector is attributed to the high innovative capacity of Chinese industry and policy measures. "These include the promotion of joint ventures and knowledge transfer, but also mandatory domestic content, which means that foreign investors must use products or services manufactured in China. With its large and profitable market, China was able to implement such measures," says the study's lead author, Silvia Weko (IASS/Uni Erfurt). In other developing and emerging countries, however, similar efforts have proven ineffective or even counterproductive.

Foreign investment in low-carbon energy systems there is still at too low a level. The countries therefore use the predominantly fossil technologies and financial resources available to them. There is a risk that these countries will remain dependent on fossil fuels in the long term.

Initiatives are committed to expanding the power grid, but too little to technology transfer

What can countries do if they want to increase technology transfer but cannot obtain it via international markets or politics? Technology transfer initiatives, such as public-private partnerships or platforms like the United Nations Climate Technology Center and Network (CTCN), are seen as an opportunity for the energy transition in the Global South. Such initiatives should fill the gap in the market, but their track record is mixed according to the IASS researchers' analysis.

Weko and Goldthau identified 71 international initiatives that include the transfer of low-carbon technologies among their objectives. A particularly large number of these are active in countries where only a small proportion of the population has access to electricity. They are successfully improving the development of sustainable energy systems there. However, only 26 of the 71 initiatives surveyed actually take on the task of technology transfer.

In order to increase the transfer of knowledge to developing and emerging countries, the researchers believe it is essential that industrialized countries keep their funding promises and provide more support to the United Nations Climate Technology Center and Network. This is because the gap cannot be closed with the current patchwork of initiatives. The link to trade also offers opportunities: for example, technology-importing countries can negotiate better conditions if they pool their demand.

Source: www.iass-potsdam.de

This article originally appeared on m-q.ch - https://www.m-q.ch/de/mangelnder-technologietransfer-gefaehrdet-klimaziele/