The SETI Alliance is a stakeholder support mechanism, hosted and managed by ICTSD, which works towards supporting and developing initiatives to promote a scale-up of innovation, production and deployment of sustainable energy goods and services through trade. The purpose of the Alliance is to support the formulation of policies addressing international markets for sustainable energy goods and services, which would contribute to climate change mitigation and to improving access to energy and enhancing energy security.

This event, organized by ICTSD with support by the Green Growth Action Alliance of the World Economic Forum, took place in Doha, Qatar, alongside COP 18.

The launch followed a year of rapid momentum for initiatives to foster trade in sustainable energy goods and services, notably at the G20/B20 in Mexico, APEC in Vladivostok, as well as in the European Union. The need for such initiatives has been broadly endorsed by key players, such as the chair of the UN Sustainable Energy for All Initiative, the World Resources Institute and the government of China, building on work by ICTSD and its partners, including cutting edge research and strategic dialogues and workshops.

Removing obstacles to trade in sustainable energy goods and services and providing enabling international rules-based frameworks to govern trade and investment constitute an important opportunity for addressing climate change. At the same time, such policies and measures would bring about a wide range of benefits, such as enhancing access to energy for the rural poor, spurring green jobs and reducing vulnerability to fossil fuel imports.

This is why ICTSD and its partners the Global Green Growth Institute and the Peterson Institute of International Economics have committed to promoting collaborative approaches that will inform Sustainable Energy Trade Initiatives, including eventual agreements (SETA). Such initiatives would bring countries together around the imperative of a massive, urgent scale-up of innovation, production and deployment of sustainable energy goods, services and technologies addressing tariffs, a broad range of non-tariff barriers and non-border distortive or obstructive measures.

Speakers at the event included:

Mr Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Chief Executive, ICTSD

Mr Jake Colvin, Vice President, Foreign National Trade Council

Mr Christoffer Bertelsen, Chief Adviser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and representative of the Global Green Growth Forum

Ms Ingrid Jegou, Manager of the Global Platform on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainable Energy, ICTSD.

Speakers: Joanna Lewis, Professor, Georgetown University; Ahmed Abdel Latif, Senior Programme Manager, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development

One such group of instruments is related to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). IPR refers broadly to the  ownership  of  intellectual  findings  in  the  industrial,  scientific,  literary  and  artistic  fields. IPR protect the interests of creators by giving them property rights over their creations.

Patents are part of IPR which intend to protect inventions and are included in the industrial property along with trademarks, industrial designs, and commercial names.

Patents constitute a rich source of state‐of‐the‐art technology information which can provide trends of technology developments when looking the patent data by country where the technology is protected and by inventors, over time.    Such  information  can  help  policymakers’  assessment  on  technology  trends  and  potential options to invest.

To  better  understand  the  functioning  and  the  role  of  patents  in  technology  development  and deployment, IRENA has started an investigation how patents can be used in renewable energy innovation.   As a case study to show the use of patent information, in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a patent landscape report was developed on desalination technologies run by renewables.   In addition,  in cooperation  with WIPO and the European  Patent Office (EPO), IRENA has also developed  the concept and prototype  of an information  platform  for renewable  energy technologies  which will enable easy search to available  databases,  and provide information on how to search relevant technologies and use the patent information.

Study Group III of the Ideas Workshop, facilitated by Miguel Rodriguez Mendoza and Marie Wilke of ICTSD, considered the participation of developing countries in the Dispute Settlement System and the role of Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT).

After reviewing the current S&DT provisions in the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), the group kicked off discussions by asking whether the DSU is in any event the appropriate forum for addressing capacity constraints.  While it was acknowledged that immediate obstacles to countries seeking to embrace dispute settlement, such as procedural time frames and other judicial flexibility, it was considered that domestic legal constraints and broader structural limitations in fact represented a greater obstacle to access for developing countries.

It was pointed out that many larger developing countries are even better resourced than developed countries and that consideration should be given to whether eligibility for S&DT should be “development neutral” and simply based on need.  Some participants argued that continuing to categorise countries as “developed” or “developing” was unsustainable insofar as access to S&DT was concerned, and that issues such as differing cultural attitudes towards ADR, for example, and domestic access to expertise was reflective of a spectrum of “need” among developing countries.

While it was mooted that deciding eligibility for S&DT on a more flexible case-by-case basis could be an improvement on the current system, concerns were expressed over the appropriateness of adjudicative bodies to have such decision making powers, and in particular, to whom such bodies would be accountable.

Concluding the discussions, the group broadly agreed that the infrequent reliance on the S&DT provisions to date illustrated the limits of S&DT to address the more fundamental accessibility obstacles to developing countries.  While flexibility in favour of developing country parties in certain dispute settlement procedures could, it was agreed, be given a formal footing, typical constraints on accessibility, such as access to expertise, poor domestic coordination and pre-litigation options, cannot be solved by simply enhancing S&DT provisions in the DSU.

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION

The world pressingly needs concerted action with respect to policies and measures affecting renewable energy, particularly to ensure that the relevant technologies, goods and services are available to all. Massive and rapid scale-up of renewable energy is crucial, so as to mitigate climate change and to enhance access to energy, in particular for those living off-grid. Access to energy is a crucial step in any development strategy, as it will contribute to economic growth and improve living standards, including health. Currently, there is a range of obstacles to such a scale-up, including to the movement of relevant technologies across borders. This hinders renewable energy from becoming a viable option to fossil fuels by preventing economies of scale and keeping costs high. Policymakers therefore need to address these obstacles, ideally through inter-governmental cooperation. On the 9 of September, 21 countries members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, APEC, including major economies such as the US, Japan, China, Russia and India, agreed to reduce applied tariffs on a range of environmental goods, including renewable energy goods. This is a step in the right direction, which would need to be further built upon to eventually include a broader range of countries, a more comprehensive list of measures and provide greaterpredictability.

ICTSD and its partners believe that such initiatives – including possible agreements, such as a Sustainable Energy Trade Agreement – are crucial to providing the massive and urgent scale-up of renewable energy. The private sector, being key for developing the technical solutions and for disseminating these globally through international trade and investment, is the best placed to identifying obstacles, as well as solutions, to improving the dissemination of sustainable energy. It is consequently an important ally in helping to articulate relevant needs and concerns to policymakers, thereby informing a possible Sustainable Energy Trade Agreement. This is why ICTSD and its partners seek to foster a dynamic and fruitful Dialogue between the industry and policy makers, through the PPP-session at this year’s 3GF and beyond.

At the session, which took place on the 9 October, broad support was expressed to ICTSD’s ambition to spur concerted action on trade policy related to sustainable energy goods and services. Lead discussants at the session were Ms Pia-Ohlsen Dyhr, Minister of Trade of Denmark; Mr Kandeh Yumkella, Director General of UNIDO and Co-chair, UN Sustainable Energy for All; Mr Ditlev Engel, CEO, Vestas; Mr Rick Samans, Executive Director, GGGI and Mr Andrew Steer, President of the World Resources Institute. An introduction was given by Mr Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Chief Executive, ICTSD, who also moderated the discussions. The approach to work with broad alliances of private and public sector, as well as with the civil society, was endorsed. Participants offered suggestions of how to take the initiative further. In particular, calls were made for an enhanced communication which would allow more stakeholders to engage and appreciate the potential of constructive action. Moreover, participants welcomed the efforts of ICTSD and its partners to provide facts and evidence, and called for more analysis that can inform a continuous public-private dialogue. Although the G20 was recognised as a key group of countries to work with, there were also calls to include Africa in particular, recognizing the continent’s pressing needs for access to energy.

This workshop will address the required actions to identify and address priority needs in standardization for renewable energy technologies, in order to contribute to the massive scale-up of clean energy around the world. The objective of this workshop is to receive feedback from experts concerning priority needs concerning standards for renewable energy technologies, required actions to address these needs, and the potential role of IRENA, UNIDO and ICTSD to support these actions.

The participants will be a small group of experts involved in renewable energy standardization, who will discuss the following topics:

· Trade in renewable energy technologies
· Harmonization of standards
· Certification and accreditation
· Incorporation of standards into national regulatory frameworks (policy makers’ perspective)
· Developing country participation in the development process of international standards
· Information platform and capacity building
· Prioritization of needs and defining required actions