Climate change

ICC discusses technology development and deployment in Copenhagen

  • 17 December 2009

ICC has hosted an official side event at the Copenhagen climate change talks to explore vital enabling frameworks needed for business to successfully develop and deploy technology at the necessary scale to combat climate change.

Brian Flannery, Vice Chair, ICC Commission on Environment and Energy opened the discussion by reminding the participants of the two energy challenges the world faces, the next decades’ rapid increase in energy demand, and the management of the green house gas risks.

Jean-Yves Caneill, Sustainable Development Project Manager, Electricité de France, shared his experience and point of view from the power sector. The energy sector currently emits 40% of green house gas emissions and needs to improve its management of energy efficiency, deploy low-carbon technologies rapidly and accelerate its research and development on carbon sequestration.

“Many technologies that can help to de-carbonize the economy already exist, but there is a need to create successful deployment conditions and progressively build the international architecture in order to meet the challenge before us,” said Mr Caneill.

Peter Taylor, Head, Energy Technology Policy Division, International Energy Agency (IEA) presented the organization’s roadmaps for Carbon Capture and Storage, wind, cement, photovoltaic and electric vehicles. The roadmaps chart the way for the introduction of new technologies and identify the roles and responsibilities of all parties.

“The IEA believes that technology will be at the heart of the discussion. Whatever Copenhagen’s outcome, it is vital to marry the public and private sectors in order to spread clean technology as fast as possible,” said Mr Taylor.

Richard Wilder, Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property (IP), Microsoft Corporation, discussed the issue of intellectual property in relation to technology transfer. He said that the private sector is making a large bet when committing to invest in technology to combat climate change, and that IP is a key incentive to induce investments from it. He explained that IP is essential at national and international level because it helps to control the use of technologies and generates cooperation between public and private actors.

ICC has been working in the lead-up to Copenhagen detailing the critical role of the private sector in developing and deploying technologies to deal with climate change. Moving forward from Copenhagen ICC will work in partnership with governments and civil society to lead the transition towards a low-carbon.