International Initiative on Climate Technology Policy

 By Lewis Milford and Jessica Morey, Clean Energy Group. December 2009.

This brief 8-page document addresses the “why” of international technology collaboration — the basic reasons why global technology policies – for product development — beyond cap and trade are needed for stabilization. The paper reviews the major reasons why the world needs coordinated and collaborative climate technology innovation and product development – in addition to emissions cap and trading. To simplify core principles, this paper explains why technology innovation is needed and why countries should pursue complementary technology innovation policies on a coordinated, global basis. The paper supports the arguments with experts’ quotations and then provides a comprehensive list of citations and key reports for further reading on each point in the Appendix.

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By Lewis Milford and Jessica Morey, Clean Energy Group. December 2009.

This one-page document explains the reasons to consider a new international climate innovation facility to meet the challenges of climate recovery.

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 By Clean Energy Group, Meridian Institute and Center for European Policy Studies, December 2009

This paper recommends “how” an international technology collaboration could be structured. It proposes using “virtual” and low cost “distributed innovation” and Internet-based tools to accelerated technology cooperation and change – in the same way most major corporations today create collaborative products with partners outside their companies. It argues that climate policy makers should use these corporate strategies in climate, and accelerate global product development in low carbon technologies at a scale and in the time frames needed for stabilization – and to do so using new structures outside the existing institutions. This is a joint paper with the Meridian Institute and the Center for European Policy Studies.

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The following is a list of background materials on Technology Innovation and Climate Change with a brief description of each document and links to the document.

• Community R&D Information Service (CORDIS). “Patent Forum Asks How IPRs Can Help Solve Climate Problem,” May 8, 2008. Available at the CORDIS website. (Developing countries defend IPRs as necessary to stimulate and reward innovation, whereas developed countries see IPRs as a barrier to technology transfer. However, to date the debates over the role of IPRs in clean technology development and transfer have been largely theoretical.)
• De Boer, Yvo. “Inventing a Cleaner Future: Climate Change and the Opportunity for Intellectual Property,” Presentation at the European Patent Forum 2008, May 7, 2008. Available at the EPO.org website. (A revolutionary international clean energy technology mechanism must address all stages of the technology cycle, from innovation to application, with consideration of funding and policy for each stage. A special patent regime for climate change might include public ownership of IPRs and public-private partnerships in purchasing commitments, voluntary buy-outs of IPRs, and compulsory licensing.)
• Georghiou, Luke. “ Europe ’s Research System Must Change,” Commentary, Nature, April 2008. (To more effectively address Europe ’s economic, social, and environmental goals, research must be more effectively coordinated with policy and regulation setting.)
• G8 Summit Declaration 2007, Growth and Responsibility in the World Economy, available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/92264.pdf. (In Heiligendamm, the G8 countries agreed to urgently develop and deploy clean energy technologies in all areas of energy production and use and to collaboratively accelerate the widespread adoption of clean energy technologies in developing economies.)
• Kahn, Debra. “More than Half of State’s Emissions Cuts to be Achieved Through Regulation.” Climate Wire, May 14, 2008. ( California plans to give direct regulation a larger role than emissions trading in fighting climate change, with a majority of emissions reductions coming from regulations on specific sectors of the economy.)
• Pearce, Fred. “Dirty, Sexy Money,” New Scientist, April 19, 2008. (Cap and trade systems may deliver big profits while doing little to curb climate change.)
• Peilke, Roger, Tom Wigely, and Christopher Green. “Dangerous Assumptions,” Commentary, Nature, April 2008. (Technological advances needed to stabilize carbon dioxide emissions may be much greater than previously believed. Policy must focus directly on motivating technological innovation.)
• Revkin, Andrew C. “The Technology Gap in the Climate Debate,” New York Times, Dot Earth (blog), April 2, 2008. Available at http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/the-technology-gap-in-the-climate-debate/. (As economists, scientists, and energy policy experts increasingly criticize existing approaches to climate stabilization, the relative merits of markets, science, and personal behavior need to be explored.)
• Rosenthal, Elisabeth. “ Europe Turns Back to Coal, Raising Climate Fears.” New York Times, April 23, 2008. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/europe/23coal.html?hp. (Faced with rising energy demand, soaring oil and natural gas prices, energy security concerns, and political opposition to nuclear energy, European countries plan to build about 50 coal-fired plants over the next five years—plants with operating lives of some five decades.)
• Xinhua Press. “ China Calls for Technology Transfer, Fund to Address Climate Change.” Thaindian News, April 24, 2008. Available at http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/china-calls-for-technology-transfer-fund-to-address-climate-change_10041560.html. (Emphasizing that breakthrough technologies are crucial to stabilizing the climate, a senior Chinese official has called on the international community to develop a mechanism for clean energy technology development and transfer.)

The following is a list of reports (PDF format) that were prepared and circulated by participants at the IICTP meeting on Climate Technology Innovation: 

• The Clean Energy Group/Meridian proposal titled “Climate Technology Innovation: a New Strategy and Structure,” outlines a new approach to the climate innovation process. Also included for consideration is a short CEG paper addressing the topic of “picking technology winners.”

• A paper by Mutsuyoshi Nishimura, Senior Advisor to the Cabinet, Japanese Prime Minister’s Office titled “Innovation Strategies to Achieve GHG Peak and Decline: A Proposal” calls for a new climate mechanism on technology innovation; unfortunately, he was not able to attend the meeting but was kind enough to write some of his perspectives and will participate in future work.

• Richard Benedick, former Ambassador to the US who negotiated the Montreal Protocol, in a paper titled “Confronting Climate Change: The Technology Imperative,” writes that world leaders must finally and frankly assess the uncomfortable lessons of the Kyoto Protocol and that arbitrary short-term emission targets will not promote the revolution in energy technology research, development, and diffusion that is essential to avoiding potentially catastrophic climate change.

• Jill Panetta, co-founder of InnoCentive, has written a paper titled “Distributed R&D,” explaining how distributed innovation processes can be applied to the private corporate sector’s work on product innovation.

• Sasha Mackler, Associate Technical Director, and Tracy Terry, Technical Director, of the National Commission on Energy Policy have enclosed a summary, "Overview of NCEP Projects Focusing on Energy Technology Policy," of their ongoing projects regarding new technology based approaches in the U.S. as well as the need for new institutions to manage these new technology programs.

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[Press Release] European Commission agreed on 23 January 2008 to a far-reaching package of proposals that will deliver the European Council’s commitments to fight climate change and promote renewable energy. These measures will dramatically increase the use of renewable energy in each country and set legally enforceable targets for governments to achieve them. All major CO2 emitters will be given an incentive to develop clean production technologies through a thorough reform of the Emissions Trading System (ETS) that will impose an EU-wide cap on emissions. The package seeks to deliver the European Union to reduce greenhouse gases by at least 20% and increases to 20% the share of renewable energies in the energy consumption by 2020, as agreed by EU leaders in March 2007. The emissions reduction will be increased to 30% by 2020 when a new global climate change agreement is reached.

The full proposal can be found by clicking here.

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Christian Egenhofer, Lew Milford, Noriko Jujiwara, Thomas L. Brewer and Monica Alessi. European Climate Platform (ECP) Report No. 4, December 2007.

This report analyzes the issue of technology development, demonstration and diffusion with a view to indentifying the key elements of a complementary global technology track in the post-2012 framework.

This report is based on discussions at the ECP seminar on Strategic Aspects of Technology for the UNFCCC and Climate Change Debate: The Post-Bali Technology Agenda, 3 October 2007, Brussels.

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Commission of the European Communities. Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and teh Committee of the Regions. Brussels, 22 November 2007.

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Summary for Policymakers of the Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Draft, 16 November 2007.

This report concludes that warming of the climate system is unequivical.

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Lewis Milford, Clean Energy Group, November 2007. Discussion paper to be presented at the Road to Copenhagen 2009 Conference on Leadership, Sustainable Development and Climate Change, Brussels, Belgium.

This paper proposes a new global architecture and strategy for climate technology innovaiton for the post-2012 framework.

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Jonathan Lewis, Clean Air Task Force, October 2007.

In 2003 the EU issued a Directive promoting the use of biofuels and other renewable fuels for transport. The Directive sought/seeks to have biofuels account for 2% of EU transport fuels by 2005, 5.75% by 2010, and in a 2007 addendum, 10% by 2020.

The EU mandate was primarily driven by farm policy, to create new outlets for agricultural and forestry products, and to diversify rural economies. Reduced emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), energy security, and improved environmental impacts were cited as ancillary benefits of the policies. However, due in part to global market forces and economic efficiencies in developing countries, the result is that the Directive has exacerbated some of the very problems it was designed to solve, driving up food prices, leading to increased deforestation in tropical countries, worsening global warming, and increasing imports of bio-oils.

This report from Clean Air Task Force examines these unintended consequences and highlights the need for updated, comprehensive tools to analyze the true net impacts of policies that increase biofuels use.

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Lewis Milford, Clean Energy Group, October 2007. Presentation to the European Climate Platform, Brussels.

ECP Seminar - Strategic Aspects of Technology for the UNFCCC and Climate Change Debate: The post-Bali technology agenda, October 3, 2007.

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Jeremy Lovell, Reuters. September 24, 2007. This analysis by Jeremy Lovell explains that carbon pricing will not achieve the carbon reductions necessary to make a global energy system carbon neutral by 2050, and he makes the case that strict technical standards and investment incentives will be needed to achieve that transition.

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Lewis Milford, Clean Energy Group. September 4, 2007. Lewis Milford will present this paper at the G8 Gleneagles Ministerial Meeting in Berlin, Germany in early September 2007.

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UNFCCC - Dialogue on long-term cooperative action to address climate change by enhancing implementation of the Convention. Fourth workshop, Vienna, 27-31 August 2007. Dialogue working paper 8.

Report on the analysis of existing and potential investment and financial flows relevant to the development of an effective and appropriate international response to climate change.

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Dr. Hermann E. Ott, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. A discussion paper for the 2007 Tällberg Forum. August 2007.

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Ken Berlin, Robert M. Sussman. Link to web site for "The Path to Cleaner Coal: Performance Standard More Effective Than Bonus Allowances," Center for American Progress Action Fund. August 2007.

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Austrailian Buisness and Climate Group Report, August 2007.

Link to the ABCG web site to download the report, "Stepping Up: Accelerating the Deployment of Low Emission Technology in Austrailia."

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Open Europe. August 2007.

Link to Open Europe’s report on the short-comings of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the EU’s main policy tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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Lewis Milford, Clean Energy Group. "A New Geometry of Complementary Climate Technology Solutions: What the Heiligendamm G8 Could Mean for a Post-2012 Climate Framework." July 2007.