Technology Co-development to support Just Industry Transition

LeadIT and TESS (Forum on Trade, Environment & the SDGs) are hosting a roundtable event to explore the key challenges and opportunities around technology co-development for a just and equitable transition with a focus on heavy industry.

Context

As governments and companies intensify their efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions, a just transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient development pathways will require massive scaling up, diffusion and transfer of environmentally sound technologies. This is particularly the case for heavy industries such as steel and cement, which generate about one quarter of global carbon emissions – making their transition to net zero a crucial requirement to meet the Paris Agreement commitments.

Co-operation, trade-related policies, and successful approaches to technology co-development will have to play a critical role in fostering such transformation, facilitating technology access and diffusion. In emerging markets and developing countries the deployment of decarbonization technologies faces several obstacles, including high costs of both technology and capital, policy and financing challenges, as well as complexities around adaptation of new and existing technologies to specific contexts.

Objectives

The roundtable will engage senior participants from LeadIT members, other WTO member governments, as well as key international organizations to:

• Discuss challenges and opportunities around technology co-development and green global public goods, including issues and implications in terms of intellectual property rights and trade
• Share experiences and best practice on dissemination of climate technologies, both in terms of policy initiatives and industry collaborations
• Identify policy priorities for inter-governmental cooperation as well as options for international collaboration and learning among governments and companies.

Agenda

Welcome 

• Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, Executive Director, TESS

Introduction

• Per Andersson, Head of LeadIT Secretariat
• Aashish Chandorkar, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of India to the WTO
• Joakim Löfvendahl, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Sweden to the WTO

Structured roundtable

• Moderator, Robert Watt, Engagement Director, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

Speakers

• Corey Blackman, Senior Technical Advisor, SaltX
• Viktoria Karsberg, Head of Corporate Identity and Group
  Communications, SSAB
• Antony Taubman, Director, Intellectual Property Division, WTO
• Rana Ghoneim, Chief of the Energy Systems and Industrial
  Decarbonization Unit, UNIDO
• David Vivas Eugui, Chief of Section Ad Interim, Trade, Environment &
  Sustainable Development Branch
• Peter Oksen, Green Technology and Research Manager, Climate Change and Food Security, World Intellectual Property Organization
• Vice Yu, International Lawyer and Independent Consultant
• Marumo Nkomo, Counsellor Economic, Permanent Mission of South Africa to the WTO

Open Roundtable Discussion

Closing Remarks

About TESS

Based in Geneva, the Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (TESS) has a mission to foster inclusive international cooperation and action on trade and sustainability. It aims to support the multilateral dialogue, inclusive international cooperation, and policy action necessary to align trade and trade policies with the urgent need for environmental action, sustainable development, and just transitions. TESS is housed at the Geneva Graduate Institute.