Cooperative Climate Change R&D That Works

Abstract

Developments in international climate policy over the past five years have broadened the scope of technology policy in contributing to mitigation goals. Beyond the traditional model of technology transfer, new efforts have sought to deepen the level of cooperation between countries in accelerating innovation. Some of this activity has occurred in a multilateral context with open participation, such as the coordinated research and development (R&D) goals set under the Mission Innovation initiative announced at COP21. Other forms of cooperation occur in limited-member “clubs,” such as the International Energy Agency’s Implementing Agreements. Finally, bilateral agreements for R&D collaboration have been started between many country pairs, for example the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center and the U.S.-India Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center.

International cooperation provides the opportunity to accelerate innovation while also broadening access to and deployment of new inventions. However, these efforts also face multiple roadblocks in implementation. Here we propose a set of five key principles to establish cooperative R&D arrangements. We believe following these principles will lead to the formation of cooperative R&D arrangements which will enjoy the advantages of collaboration while bypassing many of the potential barriers.