Bridging the low-carbon technology gap? Assessing energy initiatives for the Global South

Silvia Weko and Andreas Goldthau

Energy Policy, 2022, vol. 169, issue C

Abstract: Many developing countries have made their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) conditional on receiving climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity-building support. Due to a lack of engagement from the private sector, countries from the ‘Global South’ face continued challenges in accessing low-carbon finance and technology. Technology transfer initiatives, including public-private partnerships or intellectual property rights (IPR) sharing platforms, have been suggested to bridge this ‘low-carbon technology gap’ and promote the technology transfer needed for energy systems transformation. This paper assesses whether such initiatives address the technology gap, as well as other imperatives such as climate justice or carbon lock-in prevention. The paper finds that many low-carbon technology transfer initiatives focus on transferring multiple kinds of technologies to countries that are facing electricity access and governance challenges. Yet these initiatives do not all address the key capacity-building components of knowledge transfer, and countries with poor intellectual property rights (IPR) protections have fewer initiatives on average. Initiatives are also observed less frequently in climate-vulnerable countries. To meet the Paris climate goals, there is an urgent need for the international community to address the low-carbon technology gap by mainstreaming technology transfer into trade and finance.

Keywords: Technology transfer; Renewable energy; Intellectual property rights; SDG 7; Public-private partnerships (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421522004128
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:169:y:2022:i:c:s0301421522004128

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113192

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().