Thursday, November 29, 2007

China: "Don't patent CO2 Technology"

This meme seems to be spreading. Last week we had Nicholas Stern saying it in India:
‘No patenting of clean technology, please’

That's Nicholas Stern talking. I'm curious how my florescent green venture capitalist friends will react.
For the most part they were okey-dokey with Sir Nick when he was downplaying the costs of mitigation.*
Now the Chinese. From Reuters:
Rich countries must rethink intellectual property protection on energy-saving technology if costs of such technology are to be within reach of developing nations, a top Chinese energy official said on Wednesday.

China, which is set to surpass the United States as the world's top emitter of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, has called on rich countries to focus on technology transfer to help it offset emissions.

"I think we have to resolve a lot of barriers on the so-called intellectual property rights issues," Zhou Dadi, of China's Energy Research Institute, told reporters.

"That means if you really want to help China to speed up the technology transfer process, we have to really think about how to help China cover the high costs. Most of them are not based on material, they're based on intellectual property rights."

Asked if China would raise that issue in negotiations opening in Bali next week that will begin the process of finding a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, Zhou said: "I think so -- it should."...MORE