There’s a simple truth for what’s needed in technology transfer at COP22. Here are some suggestions on how to make it so:
1. The massive scale of technology deployment that is needed to meet the 1.5°C goal with pre and post 2020 action requires that the Climate Technology Centre and Network, the operational arm of the Technology Mechanism, is ready for a sharply rising influx of country requests. The CTCN needs to use its resources wisely, for example, by improving the transparency of its funding, and by prioritising the Network provider of services, by the member with the most closely-related experience and reasonable, but not necessarily lowest cost. Quality and local knowledge do matter. Add the periodic assessment of the TM and a solid draft for the Technology Framework for a winning combination.
2. We need to create a “Stakeholder Cooperative Technology Assessment Space” to take a hard look at both the co-benefits and risks of projects, particularly “unknown” or “unknowable” negative impacts when a technology is untested or can only be properly tested in the open atmosphere or ocean.
Cooperative Technology Assessment engages all stakeholders and endeavours to answer a range of questions:
1. How do we know which technologies’ emission reductions and/or increased resilience/co-benefits are worth the risk that they might pose?
2. How do we protect communities, particularly the most vulnerable, against unforeseen cross-boundary impacts?
3. How can we best apply the precautionary principle to climate technology research and development in order to channel the safest and most effective innovations?
3. We need to stress the “soft side” of technologies — the capacity building, training, and stakeholder engagement — that empowers communities to fully utilise and champion their deployment for a long useful life.
There – was that so hard?