Enabling Law and Policy Environment for Climate Technology Transfer: From Perspectives of Host Countries

• Author: Chen Zhou
• Position: Professor Assistant of international environmental law at Xiamen University. LL.M. (Wuhan), Ph.D. (Tilburg). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8461-2738. This research was supported by the research program of 'Addressing Climate Change and The Synergic Control of Air Pollutions' (0130/K1300001), Starting-Up Research Fund of China Scholarship ...
• Pages: 45-70

Enabling Law and Policy

Environment for Climate

Technology Transfer:

From Perspectives of

Host Countries

∗ Professor Assistant of international environmental law at Xiamen University. LL.M. (Wuhan), Ph.D. (Tilburg). ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8461-2738. This research was supported by the research program of “Addressing Climate

Change and The Synergic Control of Air Pollutions” (0130/K1300001), Starting-Up Research Fund of China Scholarship

Council. The author may be contacted: czhou@xmu.edu.cn / Address: South Siming Road 422, The Law School of Xiamen

University, Siming District, Xiamen, Fujian Province, P.R. China

Chen Zhou

∗

Climate friendly technologies contribute to tackling global climate crisis and the

dynamic transfer of these technologies is important to achieve universal climate actions.

The UNFCCC, and its recent Paris Agreement, have introduced international assistance

to promote climate related-technology transfer. They call for collaborative actions

from both technology supplier and demander sides in order to enable environments

for a meaningful and effective technology transfer. According to the UNFCCC, the

international technology assistance is unlikely to work in a desired way with the

absence of indigenous enabling environments. Therefore, it is crucial to identify,

assess and overcome potential barriers potentially confronted by host countries in their

acquisition of climate technologies, which helps prepare these countries for climate

resilience economy and sustainable development. This paper attempts to provide a deep

and comprehensive analysis on enabling policy/ law environments in host countries

and uses Asian countries as examples in most occasions.

Keywords

Climate Change, Technology Transfer, Host Countries, Demander,

Enabling Environment

J. EAST ASIA & INT’L L. Vol. 12/No.1 (2019); 45-70

Publication type : Research Article

Section : Article

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.14330/jeail.2019.12.1.03

46 Chen Zhou

I. Introduction

Climate change is a global common concern and the combat of it requires all

possible solutions. In this process, technology solutions would play profound roles

because they serve for reducing greenhouse gases (“GHGs”) emission, optimizing

energy structure, and promoting low carbon economy and society. Today, there

is a worldwide consensus that the development and transfer of climate friendly

technologies contribute to local capacity building, thereby promoting the compliance

of climate agreements ultimately. The United Nations Framework Convention

on Climate Change 1992 (“UNFCCC”) has recognized technology transfer as

international assistance. It has also required facilitating the development of climate

technologies and their dynamic transfer on a global scale. The recent Paris Agreement

aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, which in many

aspects committed its members to tighten cooperation on climate technologies.

Despite the necessary role of technologies, the real world shows a different

picture: climate technologies are transferred at an inadequate rate,

1

particularly in

light with the requirements of the UNFCCC and the urgency of [addressing] global

climate crisis. The reasons behind this gap are complex. From the perspective of

technology demander, the absence of enabling policy/law environments in host

countries (mostly developing countries in practice) largely undermines a meaningful

  

these potential barriers that hinder smooth crossing-border technology flows in a

comprehensive and constructive manner.

A. The Key Needs of Host Countries

Participatory development is seen as imperative to achieve all-round, multi-channel

technology transfer.

2

This development includes the efforts of both technology

supplying and demanding countries, and the public and private sectors. Although

the international transfer of climate technology depends primarily on suppliers,

3

it is

       

1 T. Heller & P. Shukla, Beyond Kyoto-Advancing the International Effort against Climate Change, THE PEW CENTER ON

GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE 115 (2003).

2 IPCC, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (Summary for Policymakers) (2014), available at

https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ar5_wgII_spm_en.pdf (last visited on May 28, 2019).

3 U.N. Doc. FCCC/TP/2003/2 (Feb. 4, 2003), available at https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/tp/tp0302.pdf (last visited on

May 27, 2019).