Part VIII Compliance, Implementation, and Effectiveness, Ch.55 Technology Assistance and Transfers

Subject(s):

Sustainable development

This chapter highlights the role of technological assistance and transfers in international environmental law. At its heart, technology transfers aim to address the inequitable distribution of costs and benefits that have occurred between developed and developing countries under conventional patterns of economic growth. This has been reflected through a range of international environmental law instruments. However, despite the prevalence of technology provisions in international environmental law, there remains a lack of effective implementation. This can be attributed, in part, to the tension between technology transfers and the protection of intellectual property rights. Direct confrontation between the intellectual property and technology transfer regimes has been side-stepped, but there remains a strong need to seek complementarity between the two systems.