4.10 Equity Considerations
Any international regime that aims to address international problems will tend
to influence the distribution of costs and benefits associated with the management
of the regime, both internationally and nationally. To the extent that the transfer
of technology is seen as an important operational tool for addressing the global
climate change problem, it will also have a serious impact on distribution issues.
The technology transfer issue is born out of the principle of equity and common
but differentiated responsibilities of countries. The United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) stated in Article 4.5
that the developed country Parties "shall take all practicable steps to
promote, facilitate and finance, as appropriate, the transfer of, or access
to, environmentally sound technologies and know-how to other Parties, particularly
developing country Parties". However, the international equity aspect of
climate change impacts and adaptation have received relatively little attention
so far (Metz, 1999). So there is even less material to draw on to review the
'national' equity aspects of technology transfer. But it is evident that the
execution of the international responsibility of developed country parties will
have differential impacts in recipient countries. Within the domestic contexts
of countries, there are also vast differences in emission and development levels
between different groups of people. Technology transfer within countries is
likely to affect some groups positively at the cost of other groups so clear
distribution issues will become evident. If they are ignored there could be
negative consequences on achieving technology transfer (see Box
4.8).
Box 4.8 Development Conflicts: For a New Agenda
(Reddy, 1998) |
Environment-development conflicts can be minimised if not avoided. What
is required is the implementation of a new agenda based on: a quantitative
statement of what the project intends to achieve; a comprehensive listing
of all the options (including megaproject and/ or mixes of smaller options)
for achieving the objective; rigorous comparative real-costing of options,
inclusive of externalities; determination of least-cost mixes; clear description
of benefits according to region, location, income-group and gender; environmental
impact assessment; universally accessible information and transparency;
and democratic participation and decision-making along with the necessary
institutional changes." |
|