Fostering Climate Action Through the Cross Border Flow of Clean Energy Technologies
Channel: ICTSD
Date: 13/01/2015

Shifting to a cleaner energy mix is crucial to keep the average global temperature rise below 2-degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels. To achieve this, costs of renewable energy must go down and markets need to be strengthened in order to enable a steady scale-up of innovation, production and dissemination of renewable energy technologies. Free flows of goods, services and knowledge across borders would contribute to an improved dissemination of and enhanced access to relevant technologies.

The world’s leading trading nations are currently negotiating the liberalisation of international cross-border movements of environmental goods, including clean energy technologies. A successful outcome of this so-called EGA negotiation could constitute a positive contribution to COP 21, set to be a pivotal moment for climate action. Indeed, one explicit objective of the EGA negotiation is to contribute to climate action and the work of the UNFCCC.

In order to spur this development, trade ministers need to draw upon the technical expertise of the UNFCCC and its Technology Mechanism under the Technology Executive Committee (TEC) and the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN). The TEC and the CTCN could both make positive contributions to the EGA negotiation by facilitating the identification of relevant technologies and advising governments involved.

This side-event highlighted the EGA negotiation and its potential to contribute positively to climate action through the diffusion of climate technologies. The session also explored a possible role for the Technology Mechanism in this context.

Speakers: 

Ricardo Melendez-Ortiz, Chief Executive, ICTSD

Choi Jai-chul

James Bacchus

Jukka Uosukainen

Paul Watkinson

Krzysztof Klincewicz 

More info @ http://www.ictsd.org/themes/climate-and-energy/events/fostering-climate-action-through-the-cross-border-flow-of-clean