Paris, 15 December 2015 - Over 100 participants from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), academic and private sector, gathered in Paris at a side event within the framework of the Green Growth and Sustainable Development Forum on 15 December 2015.
The side event “Technology Innovation for a Green Economy in Developing Countries” was organizes jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Centre for International Environmental Studies (CIES) of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.
This side-event presented innovation policy for a green economy in several developing countries. In particular, it provided country case studies to examine the issue of accessing clean energy technology and how to contribute to the evolution of eco-innovation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. The research investigates the barriers to the diffusion of clean technologies, the governance mechanisms that can help to unlock diffusion and improve clean energy access in developing countries and required policy environment which enables eco-innovation process of SMEs through green technology.
The event built on the results of a joint research project between UNEP and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, as well as UNEP's project on eco-innovation and specifically the role of technology in the process of eco-innovation.
The event was opened by Joy Kim, Senior Economic Affairs Officer at UNEP's Economics and Trade Branch (ETB), who highlighted that innovation policy was identified as one of key policy tools to support green growth at the inauguration conference of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) in 2012, Mexico. In particular, access to readily available clean technology was highlighted as a key issue in many developing countries. The UNEP-CIES joint project specifically focuses on the barriers to readily available clean technologies, especially in developing countries.
Liliana Andonova, Professor and Co-Director of the CIES, emphasized that exploring these barriers is important in light of the advancement of consensus on the need for clean technologies following the COP21 and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Five speakers discussed various barriers to clean energy technologies in several developing countries and how they can best be addressed for a green economy transition. Ms. Suchita Srinivasan, from CIES, presented key policy barriers to the diffusion of fluorescent lamps across developing countries. The study shows that among others, incentives through subsidies, bans on inefficient lighting and information were effective in impacting the adoption of energy efficient lighting. The key barriers towards greater adoption of these technologies includes a lack of information and a lack of affordability. In this regard, policy mix to promote access to this technology may not be complementary.
In developing geothermal energy in Indonesia, Ms. Kathryn Chelminski from CIES, highlighted that international development assistance and policy support have played a key role in filling gaps left by the private sector and government. However, there are still financial and regulatory barriers remaining and a significant need for improved policy transfer and human capacity building at multiple levels of government and in the technical workforce.
On the issue of whether tariffs constitute a barrier to green goods liberalisation, Ms. Jenny Surbeck of the World Trade Institute, University of Bern, presented an empirical assessment demonstrating that tariffs indeed constitutes barriers to liberalising environmental goods (EGs). The study shows that EGs are substantially reduced in preferential trade agreements. The average tariffs of the analysed EG lists members (APEC, OECD and Friends) are lower than the average tariffs for their respective EG classification.
Mr. Long Nguyen Hong, Senior Expert on Sustainable Product Innovation and Green Production and Director of Centre for Creativity and Sustainability (CCS), presented a study which aims to understand how clean technology contributes to SMEs’ innovation in Vietnam. The scope of industries include biomass gasification, solar heating and organic farming. The study shows in Vietnam, selection of technologies, particularly ones that are linked to business models are key to the success of SMEs’ eco-innovation.
The key barriers to eco-innovation in Peru include a lack of qualified personnel, lack of finance, and risk. As possible solutions, Mr. Marcos Alegre, Director of Centre for Eco-efficiency and Social Responsibility Grupo GEA, Peru pointed out that there is a need for networked institutional platforms across public and private sector, development of local capacities, and improved incentives for SMEs.
Ms. Elisa Tonda (UNEP) and Ms. Joelle Noailly (CIES, Graduate Institute) summarized the barriers to clean technology diffusion as found in these studies, the mechanisms to address them, and highlighted opportunities for transnational cooperation involvement in achieving these objectives.
Overall the country case studies presented at the side event highlighted the following:
- there is a large scope for international cooperation to fill in gaps on finance - from the creation of ideas, to the implementation, to the commercial phase of projects, knowledge and labour skills capacity that are key barriers to increased access to clean technologies in developing countries;
- in both OECD and non-OECD countries, predictability and consistency of innovation policy are crucial to the diffusion of clean technologies;
- creating a market environment that are conducive to innovative technologies to induce market demand is important;
- the role of social learning also plays a key role in diffusion of clean technologies.
Additional reading
Innovation for a green economy
