Technology transfer is the process of sharing skills, knowledge and technological breakthroughs among governments and other institutions to ensure that scientific and technological developments are accessible to a wider range of users.
In this research paper, Professor Yang finds that Technology Transfers are an effective and comprehensive approach for dealing with climate change, because international cooperation on both greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation must involve transfers of technologies or dissemination of knowledge.
Professor Yang provides a tentative estimation of a benefit and cost ratio (B/C ratio) of technology transfers in climate change. Quantifying this ratio is extremely difficult due to the diversity of technologies and different institutional settings of transfers.
Major findings include: magnitudes of technology transfers are policy-related and vary significantly in different policy scenarios; enabling technology transfers always have net gains and are thus desirable; assessing the benefits and costs of technology transfers must be in connection with the underlining policies; promoting tangible and intangible technology transfers is crucial for dealing with climate change
Professor David Popp notes that, while developed countries are beginning to constrain growth in carbon emissions, emissions from developing countries are growing. Given that most historical emissions came from high-income countries, and that low-income countries desire increased economic growth, developing countries currently do not face binding emission constraints. However, alternative policy options, such as the Clean Development Mechanism, provide a means for encouraging emission reductions in developing countries via Technology Transfer.
Professor Popp critiques Yang’s estimate of the potential of technology transfer as a climate policy option, noting that the Assessment Paper focuses on the direct gains from developed country financing of abatement in developing countries - namely, the opportunity to replace high marginal cost activities in the developed world with low marginal cost activities from the developing world. Popp notes that there is an important secondary gain from technology transfer - the potential for knowledge spillovers. This paper assesses the potential role that spillovers might play, and offers an assessment of the overall potential of international technology transfer as a policy solution.
Analysis Papers, written by experts in this field, provide a comprehensive exploration of the costs and benefits of one solution to climate change.
Perspective Papers provide a critique of the assumptions and calculations used in the Analysis Paper, and provide another expert opinion on this solution to climate change.
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Prof. David Popp
Author of A Perspective Paper on Technology Transfers as a Response to Climate Change. Prof. David Popp is Associate Professor of Public Administration in the Center for Policy Research of the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. He is also a Research Associate of the National Bureau for Economic Research. He is an economist with research interests in environmental policy and the economics of technological change. Much of his research focuses on the links between environmental policy and innovation. He is particularly interested in how environmental and energy policies shape the development of new technologies that may be relevant for combating climate change.