Transfer of technology is one of the pillars of any international response to global climate change. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or the Convention), was built on a basic political bargain. On one side, under the first commitment period embodied by the Kyoto Protocol, industrialized countries would take primary responsibility for emissions reductions. They would provide a demonstrated example of carbon-free development, while transferring technology that would enable developing countries to make progress in reaching the same level of carbon efficiency. Thus, carbon leakage, i.e. the shifting of polluting carboninefficient industries from industrialized to developing countries, would be avoided. The success of the first phase would then enable developing countries to take on emissions reduction obligations in the second commitment period, along a clean development path.
Industrialized countries, however, have largely failed to provide measurable, reportable, verifiable, and effective transfer of climate-related environmentally sound technologies (ESTs). This failure was a primary bone of contention during the Bali Conference in December of 2007, and lay behind the refusal of developing countries to agree to take on specific emission reductionobligations in the post-Kyoto period. Developing countries again cited the failure of industrialized countries to abide by their UNFCCC commitments to help transfer technology, know-how, as well as providing financial assistance, in refusing the negotiate any new commitments fro developing countries during the Poznan Conference in December of 2008.
The Bali Action Plan (BAP) identifies technology transfer as a key element leading up to and beyond 2012 and refocuses the work of the UNFCCC’s Expert Group on Technology Transfer (EGTT). However, beyond the failure of political will, the basic failure of technology transfer has been institutional. There is little or no understanding of the specific institutions and activities needed to ensure effective technology transfer, at the national level in developing and industrialized countries, and at the multilateral level to connect differing national actors and achieve multilateral mitigation and adaptation goals.