Fabrice Mattei has published the summary of his proposal he has presented at COP 26 to encourage the dissemination of existing technologies to tackle climate change.
- Technology transfers (TT) of environmental sound technologies (ESTs) play a critical role in the effective global response to the climate change challenge.
- The UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement recognize the importance of the diffusion of ESTs to developing countries and least development countries (LDCs) to improve resilience to climate change.
- As the most vulnerable countries to Climate Change, developing countries and LDCs make their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) heavily conditional on international support, including TT, for, in some cases, up to 55 % reduction of GHG emissions.
- However, an estimated of only 15 % of patented ESTs are actually diffused in developing countries and LDCs.
- The implementation of a revenue-neutral national carbon tax targeting unused patented ESTs is recommended to incentivize their diffusion at the scale and speed required to meet developing countries and LDCs’ NDC objectives.
- Revenue generated from the tax will be reinvested into R&D in ESTs, green jobs and adaptation measures.
The proposed carbon tax covering patented but undiffused ESTs demonstrates that the optimal taxation of a patent depends on its social cost. Coupling a carbon tax with a patent system provides for a more efficient policy than to separately correct each externality with help of an environmentally neutral patent system, such as compulsory licensing, and a carbon tax disconnected from the competition regime associated with the patent regime.
