[A2k] EC Report - IPRs & Climate Change

[Heesob Nam]

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2009/february/tradoc_142371.pdf

>From Executive Summary

Access to technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is
important for developing countries to help them address the challenges
of climate change. The innovative technologies in this domain have
become increasingly patented. In international climate change debates
in the run-up to the 2009 Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change, the
developing countries have regularly claimed that this strong presence
of intellectual property rights on carbon abatement technology, owned
by the developed countries, constitutes
a major barrier to developing economies=92 greenhouse gas abatement
efforts. The purpose of this study is to examine the validity of this
claim. It traces patent protection
and ownership data for seven relevant emissions-reducing energy
technologies in a representative sample of low-income developing
countries and emerging market economies,
over the period 1998-2008.

[SNIP]

This leads to the conclusion that patent rights can not possibly be an
obstacle for the transfer of climate change technologies to the vast
majority of developing countries:
there are hardly any patents on these technologies registered in these
countries. A relaxation of the property rights regime for the relevant
technologies in these countries would
not improve technology transfer to these countries.

[SNIP]

The reasons for an alleged insufficiency (if any) in the transfer of
technologies to lowincome developing countries should thus be sought
elsewhere: insufficient technical
knowledge and absorption capacity to produce these innovative
technologies locally, insufficient market size to justify local
production units, and insufficient purchasing power
and financial resources to acquire the innovative products. Solutions,
if needed, should be sought in policies that aim to overcome these
insufficiencies. Even without access to
technology, some domestic policies could have a high direct pay-off,
for instance a reduction in energy subsidies that reduce the private
incentive to deploy cheap but effective
abatement technologies. Grant subsidies from developed countries to
encourage developing countries=92 access to specific IPR-protected
carbon abatement technologies may actually distort the market and
result in the acquisition of not very cost effective carbon abatement
technology. Instead, support should compensate low-income developing
countries for the overall economic burden of carbon abatement while
preserving the countries=92 incentive to minimise the costs of that
abatement