WT/GC/W/886  
WT/CTE/W/254  
WT/COMTD/W/280  
 
5 July 2023  
(23-4566) Page: 1/3 
General Council  
Committee on Trade and Environment  
Committee on Trade and Development  Original: English  
 
 
THE ROLE OF TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY IN RESILIENCE BUILDING:  
CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION  
COMMUNICATION FROM THE AFRICA N GROUP (ANGOLA; BENIN; BOTSWANA; BURKINA FASO; 
BURUNDI; CABO VERDE; CAMEROON; CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC; CHAD; CONGO; CÔTE 
D'IVOIRE; DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO; DJIBOUTI; EGYPT; ESWATINI; GABON; THE 
GAMBIA; GHANA; GUINEA; GUINEA -BISSAU; KENYA; LESOTHO; LI BERIA; MADAGASCAR; 
MALAWI; MALI; MAURITANIA; MAURITIUS; MOROCCO; MOZAMBIQUE; NAMIBIA; NIGER; 
NIGERIA; RWANDA; SENEGAL; SEYCHELLES; SIERRA LEONE; SOUTH AFRICA; TANZANIA; TOGO; 
TUNISIA; UGANDA; ZAMBIA AND ZIMBABWE)  
The following communication, dated 3 July 2 023, is being circulated at the request of the Africa n 
Group.  
 
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1  CONTEXT  
1.1.  This communication should be read in conjunction with the paper WT/GC/W/883  - 
WT/WGTTT/W/34/Rev.1  - WT/COMTD/W/277  - IP/C/W/700 "The Role of Transfer of Technology in 
resilience Building: Reinvigorating the discussions in the WTO on trade and transfer of technology ", 
as submitted to the General Council, the Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology, the 
Committee on Trade and Development and the Council for Trade -Related Aspects of Intellectual 
Property Rights and document WT/GC/W/868 "Policy space for industrial development - a case for 
rebalancing trade rules to promote industrialisation and to address emerging challenges such as 
climate change, concentration of  production and digital industrialisation ". These latter two 
submissions set out the design and parameters for discussions on Agreement -specific issues as 
pertains to industrial development in general, including the role, towards that that end, of transfer  
of technology and trade.  
1.2.  Climate change adaptation strategies require new technologies such as climate -resilient 
technologies. This technological need also applies in the case of climate change mitigation efforts, 
for example with regard to solar photovo ltaic technology, wind turbines, and electric vehicles.  
1.3.  Article 10 of the Paris Agreement acknowledges the need for technology transfer; this climate 
treaty does not stipulate in detail how to transfer climate -friendly technologies to developing 
countries  or how the relevant questions about intellectual property rights should be addressed.  
1.4.  Developing and transferring technologies to support national action on climate change has been 
an essential element from the beginning of the United Nations Framework C onvention on Climate 
Change (UNFCCC) process. In 1992, when countries established the Convention, they included 
specific provisions on technology with the aim of achieving the ultimate objective of the Convention. 
The Convention notes that all Parties shal l promote and cooperate in the development and transfer 
of technologies that reduce emissions of greenhouse gas (GHGs). It also urges developed country 
Parties to take all practicable steps to promote, facilitate and finance the transfer of, or access to, 
climate technologies to other Parties, particularly to developing countries. Furthermore, the 
Convention states that the extent to which developing country Parties will effectively implement WT/GC/W/886 • WT/CTE/W/254 • WT/COMTD/W/280  
 
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  their commitments will depend on the effective implementation by developed country Parties of their 
commitments under the Convention related to financial resources and transfer of technology .1  
1.5.  In this context, since the U NFCCC  was signed at the  'Earth Summit ' in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, 
increasing importance has been attached to the transfer of ESTs in international environmental 
initiatives. The Convention has embodied the transfer of ESTs in its several articles, such as Article 
4, Article 9, Article 11, and Article 12. Furthermore, a series of special decisions were made on the 
transfer of ESTs in past sessions of the Conference of Parties.  
1.6.  The recent years have seen an increase in tension over the interface between trade and 
environmental regulations, partic ularly because of the use of environmental measures to gain trade 
advantage. This debate centres to a large extent around the concerns of the developing countries, 
whose products and services could be the subject of protectionist measures on the pretext of  
protection of environment.  
1.7.  Technology is a key element to facilitate growth and sustainable development and can only be 
achieved through fair access to and transfer of green technologies with financial assistance. 
However, efforts around technology to sup port sustainable development transitions and resilience 
building in developing countries have failed to yield results congruent with the needs. To this extent, 
there are a number of key issues in the context of technology transfer and climate change that t he 
Committee on Trade and Environment (C TE) can address.  
2  ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED WITH A VIEW TO MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 
ADOPTION AT MC13  
2.1.  These discussions which are of burgeoning interest to WTO Members could be centered around 
several critical  issues. I t is expected that each issue or sub -issue will be thoroughly analysed and 
discussed among Members, with a view to making recommendations to Trade Ministers for adoption 
at MC13 .  
a. Assessment of the Trade -Related Aspects of the Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS ) 
Agreement to enhance technology transfer for diffusion of climate change technologies, 
including compulsory licensing, together with the support mechanisms under the UNFCCC 
to access climate -friendly technologies needed, not only to support adaptat ion and 
mitigation efforts in the agricultural, LULUCF, and energy sectors, but also to enable 
cleaner production and consumption patterns in other industries and sectors of the 
economy .2  
b. Facilitate and promote development and transfer of environmentally  sound technology 
(EST), including financial commitments to ensure access to such technology, and 
investments in environmental projects.  
c. Creation of a Trade and Environment Fund with objectives such as facilitating transfer of 
EST at reasonable prices by funding the incremental costs of sourcing both proprietary 
and non -proprietary EST through licensing and other mechanisms.  
d. Special and Differential Treatment for developing and least  developed country Members 
including through technical and financial assis tance programmes.  
e. To this extent, discussions also need to address:  
i. How we promote sustainable technological change in a manner that enables not only 
transfer but diffusion of such technology, achieving radical – and not just incremental 
– sustainable tech nological change, and addressing distributional concerns and 
impacts ; 
 
1 https://unfccc.int/topics/what -is-technology -development -and-transfer . 
2 Alice Phan, 2023, A southeast Asian perspective on trade and climate change mitigation and 
adaptati on, TES -CUTS, Policy paper.  WT/GC/W/886 • WT/CTE/W/254 • WT/COMTD/W/280  
 
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  ii. How to ensure that environmental finance to developing and least developed countries 
is strengthened and materializes, to ensure that it is appropriate and adequate to allow 
developing countries to meet the incremental costs arising from green technologies 
and global environmental challenges ; and  
iii. How to ensure that environmental related technical assistance, capacity building and 
skills transfer are fit for purpose to build t he capacity for resilient economies in 
developing and least developed countries, and to help them meet their economic 
development and environmental protection needs.  
iv. How could technology transfer help developing countries secure and retain a decent 
market  share in the export markets that develop or adopt unilateral trade -related 
measures, specifically in the context of carbon pricing and circularity?  
v. How to build deeper coherence and coordination at the international level so that the 
WTO Members could ben efit from and add value to relevant initiatives like those 
supported by the Technology Executive Committee3 and its Rolling work plan for 2023 –
2027"4, and the Climate Technology Center and Network (CTCN) .5  
3  WAY FORWARD  
3.1.  It is proposed that discussions on  the role of the WTO rules in climate -resilient technologies in 
the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation commence as soon as possible in the 
Committee on Trade and Environment . 
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3 Created in 2010, the Technology Executive Committee (TEC) is the policy arm of the  Technology 
Mechanism . It focuses on identifying polici es that can accelerate the development and transfer of low -emission 
and climate resilient technologies.  
4https://unfccc.int/ttclear/misc_/StaticFiles/gnwoerk_static/TEC_key_doc/69e5143f37834a8c8e055053
4a3f0f5a/7f63a0ef1c3d481ba27efb21834c02e1.pdf . 
5 The CTCN is the implementation arm of the Technology Mechanism of the United Nations Framework 
Convention on Climate Change, and is hosted by the UN Environment Programme. The Centre  promotes the 
accelerated transfer of environmentally sound technologies for low carbon and climate resilient development at 
the request of developing countries.