This report, published by the International Council on Human Rights Policy (ICHRP) outlines how technology transfer, climate change, and human rights-based approaches explicitly come together. It focuses on how human rights-based approaches to technology transfer bear on climate change mitigation and adaptation.  

Twenty years' after the signing of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Rio in 1992, technology transfer is still a contentious term and an unclear goal for policy. The report aims to address this by examining the human rights issues that emerge — at both the theoretical and political level — in relation to technology transfer. It also examines how technology transfer can be used to secure basic human rights and set rights-based standards that can improve the living conditions of those most vulnerable to climate change.

The report suggests that human rights can provide a platform for agreement that can inform technology policy and help move it forward by prioritising needs and objectives. It concludes with relevant recommendations for governments, civil society organisations and UN bodies.

This report provides an analysis of global innovation and intellectual property (IP) trends in 2011, and examines how innovation has changed. It also reviews how IP protection affects innovative behaviour, and what that implies for policymaking.  

In four chapters, the report reviews trends in innovation and IP; the economics of IP; balancing collaboration and competition; and the role of IP in harnessing research for innovation. Each chapter concludes with recommendations for future research. The report examines questions that include the notion that innovation processes are increasingly open, international and collaborative; the drivers of increased demand for IP rights; and the rising importance of technology or knowledge markets.

It concludes by suggesting ways that IP and innovation policies can be redesigned to adapt to the growing demand for IP protection. It states that IP is playing an increasingly important role in innovation policies, and that moving beyond polarised debates will require fact-based research as well as translating economic research into accessible messages.

This report highlights advances in the use of climate information to predict and prepare for climate-related natural disasters. It draws together 17 case studies that capture the current state of knowledge within the humanitarian community, and identifies research innovations. It presents the challenges and opportunities that disaster risk managers face in using climate science with a three step approach: indentifying the problem, developing tools, and taking action.

The results show that effective partnerships are crucial and can help to build the information needed for effective response. They also suggest how the use of this information can be improved — for example by focusing on immediate opportunities for action in countries and regions more likely to benefit. Recommendations also include developing realistic expectations, in order to maintain trust in the information and those who provide it, and encouraging national meteorological services to tailor their information to the problem at hand.

This report assesses how much African countries are benefiting from and participating in the global technology market. This is based on trends in technology transfer and a comparison between flows of technology between various regions of the world and among African countries between 1990 and 2008. The report recommends simple steps that African countries can take to speed up the uptake and use of foreign technologies without stretching their budgets or changing their institutions.

This report, from the Network for the Coordination and Advancement of Sub-Saharan Africa-EU Science & Technology Cooperation (CAAST–Net), aims to promote cooperation in science and technology between Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The authors argue that Africa must build up a domestic knowledge base and Europe must help transfer technology. In this regard, they evaluate European-African partnerships and African participation in both the EU Framework Programmes and the European Development Fund.

This paper, published by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, reviews proposals on using intellectual property to improve access to climate change technologies and the extent to which these may help developing countries.

The author, US lawyer Cynthia Cannady, criticises the practicality of implementing compulsory licenses, patent pools or databases, and voluntary licensing for developing countries.

Instead, she suggests a two-pronged strategy that supports research in developing countries and promotes mutually beneficial technological collaboration between developed and developing countries.

Cannady recommends implementing this strategy by managing developing countries' intellectual capital, supporting local climate change research and development, improving education and awareness, commercialising climate change technology and engaging in periodic assessment.

This report, published by the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT), describes twelve projects to illustrate successful scientific partnerships between developed and developing countries.

The projects cover research into water-borne disease, natural disasters, brain drain and forest management, and include partnerships with researchers in Chad, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The report reveals how high-quality local and global scientific knowledge can lead to local development benefits. For example, collaboration between developed-country researchers and their counterparts in locations where infections are likely to arise can halt epidemics at the local level, benefiting the global sphere.

The authors suggest that future research budgets must take into account the global and cross-diciplinary nature of research and encourage scientific cooperation.

They say that approximately 85 per cent of global research and development resources are invested in countries within the Organisation for Co-operation Development (OECD), compared with just five per cent given to developing countries.

This report, written by climate change economist Stephen Seres and published by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), analyses the extent to which projects funded by the UNFCCC's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) contribute to technology transfer.

Although the CDM does not have an explicit technology transfer mandate, it contributes to technology transfer by funding projects that use technologies previously unavailable in host countries. Using data from over 3000 registered and proposed CDM projects, Seres finds over a third claim to involve technology transfer — of both knowledge and equipment.

Most of the technology originates from Germany, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Some countries — including Bolivia, Ecuador, Kenya, Malaysia and Sri Lanka — have a much higher than average rate of technology transfer. Others, such as Brazil and China, have a much lower than average rate, although where there is technology transfer, it often extends beyond individual CDM projects.

This report, published by Centre d'Économie Industrielle (CERNA) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), examines the distribution of climate mitigation inventions since 1973 and their international transfer.

Based on an analysis of patent data, the authors find that innovations are mostly made — and exchanged between — developed countries, although China and South Korea are found among the top ten inventors. Only 18 per cent of climate mitigation technology exports come from emerging economies, but this proportion is growing rapidly and offers huge potential for North–South and South–South exchanges.

Technologies considered in the report include wind, solar, geothermal and biomass energy, energy conservation in buildings, motor vehicle fuel injection, and carbon capture and storage.

The authors use graphs and tables to present their results. Their findings suggest that the Kyoto protocol has induced innovation but has had no effect on technology transfer.

This report, published by E3G and Chatham House proposes an institutional framework for the innovation and transfer of low carbon and adaptation technologies, and suggests key features for the international agreement due to be signed at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen in December 2009.

The authors include an executive summary and an analysis of key issues including technology options, capacity in developing countries and intellectual property rights (IPR).

They also make recommendations for action, calling for objectives to be set in terms of critical technologies that need developing. Other suggestions include creating a multilateral innovation and diffusion fund, using sectoral approaches to accelerate technology development and deployment, and establishing a 'protect and share' agreement for IPR.

This study uses empirical data to analyse the extent to which technological spillovers occur as a result of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Argentina. It discusses why FDI is often assumed to be fundamental to human capital formation and technological development in developing countries.

The authors argue that FDI may not be the most effective instrument to foster technological development. They observe that FDI spillovers are not extensive and that they depend on multinational corporations' assets and investment decisions as well as domestic firms' absorptive capacity, as indicated by their investment in training and equipment.

One of the study's key conclusions is that only those firms that have invested heavily in improving their absorptive capacity will receive positive spillovers from FDI.

The authors suggest that governments must make broader efforts to promote local firms and science and technology organisations, and improve the links between these.

This study examines the role of science, technology and knowledge in development programmes.

Based on qualitative data collected from 14 donor agencies around the word, the author presents a summary of donors' science and technology activities and their supporting mechanisms associated with knowledge for development, including research support, capacity building and technology transfer.

This report discusses whether the TRIPS-Plus rules on pharmaceutical patents are likely to benefit the Thai pharmaceutical industry. It focuses on the expected impact on pharmaceutical product prices, research and development efforts and technology transfer including foreign direct investment.

The author argues that Thailand has limited technological capacity and that a stringent intellectual property rights regime such as the TRIPS-Plus will only protect research results developed elsewhere. In the Thai pharmaceutical industry, it will damage domestic research and development and limit the acquisition of foreign technologies.

The report includes recommendations for developing countries wishing to strengthen their current patent protection and improve their positions in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations.

This report brings together articles on the globalisation of research and development (R&D) and its implications for developing countries.

Among the key issues examined are:

• the development potential of R&D funded by foreign direct investment (FDI);
• the impact of R&D-based FDI on technology transfer;
• the types of R&D that are beneficial to development; and
• policy interventions that can influence R&D-based FDI in developing countries.

The report reviews the growing number of multinational corporations' R&D activities in select developing countries and their driving forces. It discusses the importance of national policies in acquiring and originating countries as well as international ones.

The report is presented in four parts. The first discusses R&D's globalisation. The second introduces case studies from developing and transition countries. The third presents policy issues. And the last part is a collection of opinion articles.

A key conclusion of this report is that policy interventions can be fundamental to fostering and attracting R&D-based FDI to developing countries.

This World Investment Report examines the latest trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) and looks at how research and development (R&D) has become an international activity thanks to multinational corporations.

The report indicates that FDI flows grew in 2004, driven mainly by FDI to developing countries. It says that multinational companies' R&D in developing countries has become more complex, often going beyond local market adaptation to include activities that target global markets.

The report emphasises that countries receiving inflows of FDI must have coherent policies to promote beneficial R&D interactions between multinational corporations and domestic organisations.

This World Investment Report describes global trends in foreign direct investment (FDI), showing that the growth seen worldwide is largely due to cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

The report highlights the rise of FDI from developing and transition countries, examining the drivers and determinants of this phenomenon, the impact on originating and acquiring countries, and policy implications.

It argues that this rise is largely driven by multinational corporations from these countries that are becoming major players in the world economy.

This report by UNCTAD analyses three case studies of 'best practices' in the acquisition of foreign technologies and the development of technological capabilities in developing countries. Through these three cases: pharmaceuticals in India, automobiles in South Africa and aircrafts in Brazil, the report provides evidence of developing countries which were able to develop new industrial sectors and successfully compete in the international markets.

The report concludes that government policy and market discipline played a mutually supportive role in both the development of the industries and the technological capabilities of enterprises. It also stresses that although no easily transferable blueprints for country policy or strategy could be derived from these successful experiences, the three cases provide guidelines on the types of measures and policy instruments that might assist developing countries in making their industries competitive in the world market.

This report focuses on technology cooperation for the transfer of technologies to developing countries as seen by ten member companies of the WBCSD. The report analyses ten case studies and different sectors are covered, including aluminium refining in Brazil; cola bottling in South Africa; manufacturing ready-mix cement in India and providing electricity to poor neighbourhoods in Morocco.

The report makes it clear that technology transfer is unlikely to be effective unless there is constant and clear communication between companies that are transferring technology and acquiring country governments. It also argues that acquiring countries must have a core of skilled, trained people and that acquiring countries' governments and international development aid could be used to build these skills and create favourable conditions for foreign direct investment.

This report published by UNCTAD examines the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on several aspects of economic development, including technological development. Chapter six, particularly, focuses on the relationship between foreign direct investment and the building up of technological capabilities in host countries.

Referring to the impact of FDI in enhancing the technological capabilities of host developing countries, the report concludes that FDI is not a cure-all for technological development. The potential benefits of FDI for technological development are considerable, but the realisation of these benefits depends greatly on existing local capabilities and technological learning. This demands a strong role for government policy in attracting quality FDI, upgrading local capabilities to optimise the transfer of transnational corporations' technologies and the ability to foster its dissemination.

International technology transfer to developing countries is increasingly driven by special provisions in international agreements. For instance, provisions on technology transfer form an important part in several multilateral environmental agreements. Article 4.5 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) asserts that developed countries "shall take all practicable steps to promote, facilitate and finance, as appropriate, the transfer of, or access to, environmentally sound technologies and know-how to other Parties, particularly developing country Parties, to enable them to implement the provisions of the Convention."

This special report, which was commissioned by the scientific advisory body attached to the UNFCCC addresses different policy and financial instruments to support the transfers of technologies to developing countries, and to some extent build capacities in those countries to absorb these technologies. It also provides case studies from a range of different sectors, including, among others: buildings, energy and transport.