Low-carbon technologies in the post-Bali period

Firms’ reduction commitments that give carbon a value will be ‘critical’ in any post-2012 climate change agreement in order to create a framework where innovation for climate change technologies flourishes, the authors of a December CEPS paper suggest. 

In their opinion, such a framework offers the “best prospect of a competitive edge, technological leadership, export markets and employment opportunities”. 

The CEPS analysis outlines three fronts on which technology plays “a fundamental role in advancing efforts to address climate change”:

• Accelerating the deployment of existing low-carbon technologies; 
• developing and deploying new breakthrough technologies for the longer term (beyond 2030), which requires stepping up the speed and scale of innovation; and;
• avoiding, at the same time, locking-in high-carbon technologies in developing countries. 

“Domestic responses will remain the backbone of technology policy for addressing climate change”, the authors say, adding, however, that there is also a need for separate and cooperative, technology-specific research, development and deployment at a global level. 

This is needed “to accelerate innovation strategies and finance mechanisms that support the rapid development and deployment of promising technologies” – such as CO2 capture and storage, biomass and biotechnology, renewables or hydrogen systems, CEPS points out. 

Such a complementary track is necessary since “pricing strategies through cap and trade alone will not be sufficient” to provide long-term incentives for all the breakthrough technology development and deployment needed for the stabilisation of emissions, according to the authors. 

Additional technology activities are needed to increase the scale of development, remove barriers, and develop financial and policy responses for key climate change technologies.

The authors suggest that such a global effort could be accomplished through the creation of a ‘Consultative Group on Climate Innovation’, a “concept that has proven to be successful in other fields”, such as agriculture and health. 

The CEPS paper concludes by expressing the hope that such a group “could possibly facilitate international collaboration on the development of low-cost, zero-carbon technologies and the exchange of information about clean energy technologies”.