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GCN urges technology focus in climate talks

31 March 2009

Technology should be placed 'front and centre' in ongoing climate negotiations, Global Climate Network members will tell climate negotiators at a meeting in Bonn on 2 April 2009. Launching interim findings from an eight-country study of the importance of and barriers to low-carbon technology, Network member institutes from Germany, China, Australia and Brazil will suggest that technology is not currently given enough emphasis in ongoing negotiations aimed at implementing the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The research, which is yet to be finalised, has involved detailed interviews with business representatives, senior civil servants in economic and planning ministries and other, independent technology experts focussing on their perceptions of what constrains the development and use of new, low-carbon technology. While not all the data from the interviews has yet been collated, the interim findings appear to show that there is a strong desire in both developed and developing countries for strong, government-led technology strategies, but that currently policies in all but a few places are inadequate to overcome the commercial and technical barriers all technologies face.

Finance will also be emphasised by the research, which will say that there is a close relationship between public funding and accelerating the development and commercialisation of important low-carbon technologies. This is especially necessary in the developing world, where access to low-cost finance is limited; the role for an international agreement is to ensure that there is a supply of money to help new technologies reach a mass market more quickly.

The interim findings will be launched at a Global Climate Network side event at 18.00 on Thursday 2 April in Tram Room at the Ministry of Transport, Bonn.

Contact: a.pendleton@ippr.org