Economic Mechanisms to Encourage the Transfer of Low-Emission Technologies: An Evaluation of the Joint Implementation Concept

The issue of global climate change has occupied scientists, environmentalists, and policy makers around the world for approximately twenty years. The Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) and the recent Kyoto Protocol, negotiated in December 1997, have been focused on mitigating world-wide emissions of green-house gases (GHG), and the impact of human activities on our climate. For several reasons, the issue of climate change is one of the most complex environmental problems to face our planet today. It is an issue which has impacts upon all sectors of society, and involves not only science, but economics, development, health, energy, agriculture – in short, it impacts every aspect of our lives. The complexity of the issue has led to the development and analysis of mechanisms to solve the climate change problem in ways that will not hurt the economic development of the developing countries, nor will harm the way of life of the industrialized world. The development and use of energy-efficient and renewable-energy technologies has often been cited as the solution to the problem of climate change. It is furthermore believed that the use of such technologies in Eastern European countries with economies in transition (EIT) and the developing world could reduce the global level of GHG emissions substantially. Given the fact that most of the low-emission, energy-efficient and renewable-energy technologies have been developed in the industrialized world, mechanisms to transfer these technologies to EIT and developing countries is an important part of any climate change policy. The purpose of this paper is to examine current and future mechanisms to promote and encourage the transfer of low-emission technologies from industrialized countries to EIT and developing countries. Using the pilot phase of the Joint Implementation process, ‘Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ),’ as a model, the paper examines the effectiveness of the Joint Implementation concept in encouraging such technology transfer