3.5.1 Role of Government in R&D and the Transfer of Publicly-owned or
Supported ESTs
Governments play an important role in providing funding for public R&D
programmes as part of their industrial policies or science and technology development
strategy. These programmes are implemented either by government institutions
or in joint partnership with the private sector. Over the past decade, about
40% of annual national R&D spending within a number of OECD countries was
publicly funded (UNCTAD, 1998). To promote the development of ESTs that lack
short-term commercial viability, government funding and public R&D programmes
are vital. As pointed out in Chapter 2, while energy-related
R&D by OECD governments has decreased (mainly in the coal and nuclear sectors)
steadily in real terms since the early 1980s (Margolis and Kammen, 1999), R&D
for energy efficiency and renewable technologies has been increased; they now
form almost 20%, some US$2 billion, of total energy R&D expenditures made
in 1995.
In addition, governments sponsor a range of R&D that can underpin private
sector investments in developing ESTs. OECD countries could influence flows
of such technology directly through their influence on the private sector or
on public institutes, which receive funding from government for their R&D
to be more active in transferring technologies to developing countries (Chung,
1998). The issue of publicly owned technology transfer and the role that national
regulatory frameworks play in creating demand and markets for ESTs (See Table
2, UNCTAD, 1998) was addressed both in the Rio Summit of 1992 and the UNGASS
of 1997.
Chapter 34 para.34.18(a) of Agenda 21, adopted in 1992, states that "Governments
and international organisations should promote the formulation of policies and
programmes for the effective transfer of environmentally sound technologies
that are publicly owned or in the public domain".
The programme for the further implementation of Agenda 21 adopted at the UN
General Assembly at its 19th Special Session (UNGASS) in 1997 stated that "A
proportion of technology is held or owned by Governments and public institutions
or results from publicly funded research and development activities". To
fully explore this issue, a feasibility study on "the role of publicly
funded research and publicly owned technologies in the transfer and diffusion
of ESTs" was undertaken in 1997 jointly by the UNCTAD , UNEP and UN/DESA
(UNCTAD, 1998). The results of this study were reviewed at an expert meeting
in February 1998 (Government of Korea, 1998) and were reported to the 5th session
of CSD (UNCSD, 1997). CSD adopted a decision encouraging governments to undertake
pilot projects to explore opportunities for sector-specific applications of
the recommendations on transfer and commercialisation of publicly funded ESTs.
Major findings of the feasibility study done by the UNCTAD are that governments
are funding public R&D programmes as part of their industrial policy aimed
at improving their industrial competitiveness. Strong emphasis is placed on
the commercialisation of those technologies developed from public R&D.
In many cases, co-financing with the private sector also plays an important
role. Many governments either transfer or license the patents of the publicly
funded technologies to the private sector as part of their industrial policy,
and then the transferred patents follow the rules of the privately owned technologies
and behave just like the other ordinary private IPRs. Thus, instead of focussing
on the technologies held by the government, the focus should rather be on the
public R&D programmes for ESTs in exploring the feasibility of transferring
publicly owned technologies.
The country case studies of the feasibility study identified no specific policy
measures were introduced in the countries reviewed to implement the agreement
contained in Agenda 21 for the transfer of publicly owned technologies. No specific
policy measures were implemented for the transfer of publicly owned technologies
among 10 countries studied, except by the US which restricts by law the transfer
of publicly owned technologies solely to companies manufacturing substantially
in the US. The other countries do not have specific legal restriction or policies
which restrict the transfer of publicly owned technologies to developing countries.
Based on the above findings, it could be summarised that governments have not
yet reviewed this issue for implementation. As governments are funding public
R&D programmes as part of their industrial policy, the challenge for the
governments is whether they can integrate global environmental cooperation and
commitment into their industrial policy.
As governments are the main driver of public R&D programmes for ESTs, governments
can play a critical role in the promotion of the transfer and dissemination
of the ESTs. However, the modalities for the transfer of these publicly funded
ESTs are yet to be explored and discussed among the experts representing those
governments which have the potential of transferring such technologies in order
to build up consensus at a multilateral level.
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