Jocelyn Newmarch
27 October 2009
Johannesburg — POLICY incentives were needed to support technology transfer between countries in order to enable a low-carbon economy, a researcher said yesterday.
The transfer of clean technology to developing countries is necessary to rein in global emissions and help countries to develop without drastically increasing their carbon footprints.
Sharing best available technology is one way to achieve this, as developing countries often have older technology which is not as energy efficient and may be polluting the environment.
Bernice Lee, a research director for energy, environment and resource governance at international affairs think-tank Chatham House, told a conference yesterday a low-carbon development model needed to be created, particularly for non- industrialised countries.
"There is no off-the- shelf model ," she said.
Energy efficiency and renewable energy were expected to provide three- quarters of the global decrease in carbon dioxide emissions, with energy efficiency alone accounting for a 60% decrease.
This, she said, provided a possible path for developing countries.
A climate-safer world needed all major emitting countries to begin radical decarbonisation in the next two decades, she said, whatever their level of economic development.
A new industrial revolution was required, and the world was still in the early stages of putting together a robust system of incentives and institutions to drive the low carbon transition.
Existing and near-to- market low carbon technology needed to be rapidly diffused. This could include large-scale renewable energy, carbon capture and storage and energy efficiency deployment.
Climate politics were expected to become increasingly difficult from 2030 onwards, and new generations of solutions from breakthrough technologies would be needed, she said. Equitable incentive systems were also needed to deal with forestry and adaptation.
She said that the scale of international carbon markets should not be underestimated.
To stabilise global warming at 2º Celsius, the scientific consensus is that the world needs to aim for a carbon dioxide and equivalent gas concentration of 450 parts per million.
Lee said, quoting the International Energy Agency, that meeting this target would require an 18% rise in investment, at an average extra 1-trillion per year until 2050, compared to the business- as-usual requirement.
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