Tick Tech Tick Tech: Coming to Agreement on Technology in the Countdown to Copenhagen

Technology is one of the four “pillars” of a post- 2012 climate policy laid out in the Bali Action Plan (BAP). In practice a multilateral climate agreement will not be the primary driver of clean technology development, deployment, and transfer. But given the central importance of this issue in the BAP, the provisions for technology in the evolving climate agreement will have a major bearing on the success of negotiations. Designed correctly, they may also play an important complementary role in facilitating the adoption of clean technologies.

This paper reviews Party submissions to the UNFCCC and identifies emerging areas of consensus and debate that may offer constructive grounds for negotiations going forward. The paper explores how an international agreement might facilitate and encourage a range of technology cooperation efforts by channeling funding, providing a forum for capacity building and learning exchange, and creating a framework for measuring, reporting, and verifying support and actions.