Funding is critical to technology cooperation. At a minimum, adequate funding is necessary for organising and managing projects, providing expert consultants, communication, and reporting. Technology cooperation requires clear goals and motivation as a precondition for success. Corporate and government leadership accelerates progress by creating momentum, jointly overcoming market barriers and by promoting market incentives. Corporations are particularly influential in encouraging suppliers to improve environmental performance.
Governments are often successful in streamlining regulatory approvals.
Funding institutions as opposed to projects supports institutional capacity and local sustainability. Failure to seek participation from users or local people in technological adaptations can lead to sub-optimal utilisation or even a complete failure in the use of the technology. Restructuring of markets for energy, recycled and re-used materials, and property rights for natural resources create opportunities for EST adoption. However, structural changes also create major challenges that require institutional solutions to make ESTs competitive or less costly than more resource-intensive technologies. National and international action and, in many cases, cooperation and policy initiatives are needed to attach appropriate prices to natural resources.