OECD Environment Working Papers
This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected studies on environmental issues prepared for use within the OECD. Authorship is usually collective, but principal authors are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language English or French with a summary in the other if available.
- ISSN: 19970900 (online)
- https://doi.org/10.1787/19970900
Enhancing Developing Country Access to Eco-Innovation
The Case of Technology Transfer and Climate Change in a Post-2012 Policy Framework
The deployment of eco-innovations in developing countries is a key driver of their contribution to
efficiently addressing global environmental challenges. It is also a key driver of markets for eco-innovation
and sustainable economic development.
This report explores the barriers developing countries face in accessing markets for eco-innovation. It
outlines the key considerations policy needs to address to overcome these barriers and discusses the extent
to which selected existing policy mechanisms and organisation have achieved this.
The key finding of the report is that the majority of existing policy mechanisms fails to recognise the
critical importance of developing indigenous eco-innovation capabilities amongst developing country
firms. Indigenous eco-innovation capabilities are essential to facilitating both the diffusion of existing ecoinnovations
within developing countries and sustainable economic development based on the adoption,
adaption and development of environmentally sound technologies that fit with the bespoke conditions
faced by developing countries.
Building up eco-innovation capabilities in developing countries requires a shift away from the current
focus on large project based approaches which emphasise the transfer of the hardware aspects of clean
technologies, towards approaches that emphasise flows of codified knowledge (know-how and know-why)
and tacit knowledge. Policy also needs to be improved to better respond to the context-specific
technological and cultural requirements which vary inter- and intra-nationally.
Keywords: innovation capabilities, absorptive capabilities, green technologies, multilateral environmental agreements, eco-innovation, technology transfer
JEL:
Q56: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth;
Q54: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming;
Q55: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation;
O34: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth / Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights / Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital;
O31: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth / Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights / Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives;
Q58: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Environmental Economics: Government Policy;
O38: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth / Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights / Technological Change: Government Policy;
O33: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth / Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights / Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes;
O19: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth / Economic Development / International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations
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