View the webcast of the side event.

The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) held a side event on recent developments in relation to climate change, technology transfer and IPRs and the way forward, in the context of the UNFCCC climate change meetings that took place concurrently in Bonn (11-12 June).

Transfer and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies (EST), in particular to developing countries, is a key element of any effective international response to the global climate change challenge and one of the pillars of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Discussions on transfer of technology, and IPRs in particular, reflect the urgent need for further evidence based analysis to inform current negotiations.

In this regard, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the European Patent Office (EPO) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) have decided to undertake a joint study on patents and clean technologies to address this need.

The objectives and the main components of the study were presented at the side event as well as the preliminary results of the patent landscape prepared in its framework.

The side event sought to present different opinions and perspectives on technology transfer and IPRS and on the means to achieve progress on these issues, on the road to Copenhagen, in a manner which contributes to the wide diffusion of climate change technologies to developing countries.

The side event is part of ICTSD’s Global Platform on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainable Energy which is specifically aimed at contributing to effective international cooperation towards addressing climate change, by advancing analytical capacity of stakeholders and their interaction with policy makers such that effective solutions can be built and agreed by the international community at the Copenhagen COP-15, in December 2009.