Technology transfer key to climate deal: Brazil

Yahoo News 13 Jul 09;

GENEVA (AFP) – An international agreement against climate change could hinge around steps to ease the transfer of green technology to developing countries, a Brazilian official said on Monday.

His comments at a World Intellectual Property Organisation conference came amid signs of a rift between rich and poor nations over the best approach to take on patented technology that can be used to tackle global warming.

"The key message is that a fair agreement on technology transfer is crucial to seal the deal in Copenhagen," said Haraldo de Oliviera Machado Filho, a senior advisor in Brazil's government committee on climate change.

He said intellectual property systems were often seen as "a significant barrier" in transferring technology from rich to poor nations.

Many key technologies that can help countries adapt to global warming or mitigate its effects, such as by cutting emissions, were patented or would be patented in the future, he underlined.

"With these technologies there should be an understanding that patents must not be an obstacle for developing countries," de Oliviera Machado Filho told the meeting.

Chinese deputy intellectual property commissioner Li Yuguang called for a broader approach than the traditional intellectual property regime, including a "joint development fund" that could also be used to "buy and disseminate free of charge the major adaptation and mitigation technologies."

British minister for higher education and intellectual property David Lammy insisted there was a need to "get the balance right" but he did not address funding directly.

"It's not just a question of getting hold of green technology, from, for example, increased licensing. We also need to build capacity so that poorer countries can develop their own knowledge and skills base," he said.

The negotiations to seal a climate change treaty in Copenhagen in December have been dogged by disagreements over targets for cuts in carbon emissions and a fund from rich nations to help developing countries tackle climate change.

Global climate deal still possible: Brazil's Lula
Raymond Colitt, Reuters 13 Jul 09;

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday that a global climate deal could still be ready by a December summit in Copenhagen despite differences that resurfaced last week between rich and poor countries.

The Group of Eight leading industrial countries agreed on Wednesday at its annual summit to support a goal of cutting global emissions by 50 percent by 2050 and of reducing emissions in wealthy countries by 80 percent.

Developing countries like China, India and Brazil said more short-term targets were needed to make the pledge credible and called for rich country emissions cuts of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Even though the G8 could not agree with the G5 group of key developing nations on the issue at last week's summit in L'Aquila, Italy, "the issue advanced substantially", Lula said in his weekly radio address.

"I think we'll reach an accord for the Copenhagen meeting in December," he added.

The United States signed but never ratified the Kyoto Protocol, a climate treaty to be renewed in global talks culminating in the Copenhagen conference in December.

"The United States is assuming the responsibility to discuss this issue, something they haven't done since the Kyoto Protocol was signed," Lula said.

Still, Lula said more aggressive reduction targets for emissions by rich countries are a prerequisite for the establishment of a fund to finance carbon sequestration -- by planting or preserving forests.

"Otherwise what will happen? The rich countries, which have money, will pay the poor to plant more forests to absorb carbon, while they go on polluting," Lula said.

He said highly industrialized countries who have been emitting greenhouse gases for more than a century have a responsibility to adopt tougher targets.

"The United States has more responsibility than China; Europe has more responsibility than South America or Africa," Lula said.

China has replaced the United States as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases because of its fast-growing economy and dependence on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.

Brazil also has large emissions due to extensive, albeit falling, destruction of the Amazon rain forest. Burning or decomposing trees emit carbon dioxide.

Last year the Lula government announced a target to reduce the rate of deforestation by 50 percent over the next decade. The government is recalculating its emissions as a basis for possibly adopting targets later this year.

In an interview with Reuters last month, Lula said Brazil "should not be afraid" of adopting emissions targets.

(Editing by Todd Benson and Mohammad Zargham)