Promotion of Publicly Funded Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs) in Asia and the Pacific
October 2009
The issue of environmentally sound technology (EST) transfer has been prominent in international negotiations since the adoption of Agenda 21. Recent climate change negotiations have highlighted the importance of technology transfer to both mitigate and adapt to the impacts. Therefore, ESCAP recently funded a regional study on publicly funded EST transfer to highlight possible policy interventions to accelerate the transfer of environmentally sound technologies throughout the region.
The study identified some key challenges to technology transfer relating to the assessment and selection of ESTs and their adaption and replication. It is clear that multiple stakeholders have to play a role in facilitating successful technology transfer. As a policy maker and enabler for the development, selection, transfer and replication of ESTs, the government provides governance and oversight to the establishment and strengthening of national systems of innovation which increases the country's capacity to select, adopt, adapt and replicate transferred technologies. Technology transfers are influenced by national systems of innovation, which are the networks of institutions that initiate, modify, import and diffuse new technologies. National systems of innovation reflect a complex mixture of institutions (e.g. educational, financial, legal, scientific and technological), public policies (taxation; import/export promotion; science, technology and innovation) and business and social relationships.
Businesses are the primary users of technology and can be actively encouraged to adopt ESTs using traditional environmental management strategies as well as with help with technology upgrading. Academia can contribute to knowledge and technology development but needs greater engagement with society while becoming more transparent and accountable.
Successful EST transfer will depend on strengthening the existing national systems of innovation which remain weak in most parts of Asia-Pacific. Further collaborative initiatives to discuss and disseminate best practices access countries in the region will also help to mainstream the transfer.
South Korea rose from poverty to prosperity on the back of brawny industrialization, manufacturing carbon-heavy autos, ships and steel for the rest of the world mostly under the stern guidance of military-backed governments.
Now, President Lee Myung-bak sees a crisis coming for Asia's fourth-largest economy -- one of the world's biggest greenhouse gas polluters -- amid growing calls to curb global warming. But Lee, a prominent player in South Korea's industrialization as the former CEO of a construction giant, also sees business opportunities lurking in the crisis. He is at the center of efforts to drive the country in a new direction. Lee is pushing a "low-carbon, green-growth" policy aimed at lessening South Korea's dependence on fossil fuel and promoting the development of substitute energy sources, such as solar and wind power, and other technologies enhancing energy efficiency.
The plan is seen by some as nothing less than an attempt to remodel the decades-old pattern of South Korea's development and could set an example for other economies to follow. Others, however, call it nothing more than old-fashioned pump-priming in a green guise. "Global warming is a crisis while at the same time an opportunity that can create a gigantic market as it takes a tremendous amount of investment to address it," Lee said in his regular radio address to the nation last month.
The United Nations, which is promoting a campaign to lower greenhouse gas emissions, has praised Lee's plan as a "major attempt to fundamentally transform the country's growth paradigm." Granted, South Korea is not alone in seeking to add a green hue to its traditionally smokestack heavy economy. Japan aims to expand the "green business" market and create up to a million new jobs. Taiwan says it will invest $1.3 billion over the next five years to expand and upgrade the island's solar and wind energy industries and help reduce the use of fuel. But South Korea's drive, involving some 87 billion dollars of spending over the next five years, stands out not only for its scale, but also in terms of the strength of Lee's commitment.
It has become an overarching basis for government policies, and Lee rarely fails to mention it in public speeches. He even wore a green necktie during a national ceremony last month in a gesture underscoring his commitment to the policy.
Lee's "five-year green growth plan," announced in July, aims to spend 107 trillion won ($87 billion) on a variety of projects to reduce emissions and develop cutting-edge technologies and other areas.
It is reminiscent of a "five-year economic development plan" that former general-turned-president Park Chung-hee initiated in 1962 to rebuild a country devastated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
That drive, repeatedly extended for decades by successive military-backed governments, is credited for driving the country's rapid transformation into an economic power. South Korea became fully democratic in the late 1980s.
The industrialization, however, made South Korea one of the greatest producers of greenhouse gases blamed for dangerously warming the globe. The country now fears its economy could suffer unless it is ready for a mandatory requirement to cut emissions at a U.N. meeting or if higher trade barriers are built against big emitters like it.
Other challenges Lee's green initiative aims to tackle include the country's heavy dependence on oil and gas imports, which account for a third of total imports, and slowing economic growth.
"Without this, we can't get out of energy vulnerability, and growth will remain stagnant," said Kim Sang-hyup, presidential secretary for national future and vision. "That's why we say this is a strong growth policy."
Key areas of green technologies that South Korea plans to focus on include solar cell, hydrogen fuel cell, wind energy, and light-emitting diodes or LEDs, which are used in making energy-efficient bulbs and other products. Experts say these areas, though unfamiliar, have strong growth potential, and South Korea can excel in them because it can apply its world-class technologies, such as those used in semiconductor or shipbuilding.
"Though such (green) technologies are very new to us now, these are the areas that have the potential to grow rapidly in gear with climate change and especially oil price rises," said Kang Hee-chan, a senior researcher at the Samsung Economic Research Institute. Under the government's drive, big companies like Samsung Electronics and Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group have announced multibillion dollar investment plans. Samsung Electronics said it plans to spend 5.4 trillion won until 2013 to develop environment-friendly products and reduce greenhouse gases from factories. It launched a solar cell R&D line earlier this month. Hyundai-Kia plans to invest 4.1 trillion won for similar purposes.
Local environmentalists, however, criticize Lee's initiative for including a massive construction project aimed at overhauling the nation's four major rivers, claiming it is a pretext to push for his unpopular campaign pledge to build a grand canal through the country.
About a fifth of the five-year green growth budget is set aside for the river project.
"It's just an economic stimulus package creating menial jobs in construction projects like the four rivers' project," said Lee Sung-jo, an activist with the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement. The government rejects the claim, saying the river project is an effort to tackle negative effects of climate change, such as floods and water shortages. "Green growth is a path we can't avoid," President Lee said in a July meeting on his plan. "If it's a path we should take, we should be at the forefront."
Denmark, December 2008
Danish PM Green Growth vision summary
Extract from The Prime Minister's speech at the Liberal Party's annual conference 16 November
Denmark aims to substantially increase the proportion of renewables such as wind, wave and thermal power.
We aim to create thousands of new jobs by developing Denmark into a green technology centre:
We will expand production of renewable energy. Danish companies are already leaders in wind power. But international competition has sharpened. We must ensure our leading position. Denmark is strong in bioenergy. We must strengthen this position further by focusing comprehensively on e.g. biomass and 2nd generation bioethanol. We must expand the effort in other promising renewable energy sources. There is an enormous export potential, which we must be able to exploit.
We aim to be in the front rank of developing a strong and growing industry with energy efficient technologies and solutions. Through architecture, design, insulation and ventilation as well as control and management of temperature and power, massive savings and environmental improvements can be achieved.
Green IT can be used to minimise energy consumption in residential buildings, businesses and transport. Danish companies have major expertise in these areas. We must continue and strengthen the effort of transforming our knowledge into flourishing exports.
We aim to create sustainable buildings which in the long term produce more energy than they use. We will make it as attractive as possible to build plus-energy houses, which through building materials, intelligent management of energy consumption and use of renewable energy are not just self-sufficient, but can also supply surplus energy to the power grid. Such a construction technology breakthrough will create the basis for significant exports.
We aim to make Denmark into a green test market for transport. Cars will continue to be produced abroad. But we will create new growth in Denmark by developing Denmark as a test market for and supplier of green transport technology and green transport infrastructure. The larger perspective is to create the preconditions for gaining the opportunity in a few years to drive in modern and well-functioning electric cars. And to couple the electric cars to wind turbines by storing surplus energy from the wind turbines, e.g. by means of fuel cells.
We aim to promote a new green food industry. There is a need for more food in the world – at the same time as we improve the environment. Danish agriculture and the Danish food industries are leaders in optimisation and improvement of crops, food research, food safety, production of ingredients for food and use of enzymes. In addition the agricultural sector is a major supplier of renewable energy, especially biomass. All this must be exploited to create a flourishing agricultural and food sector with continued significant export earnings.
The private sector is the engine of a green growth society. But to realise the objectives, it is necessary to have strong partnerships between private and public sector companies and institutions, between private and public sector research and educational institutions and generally between the private sector and public sector authorities. We must work together to shape and implement a long-term strategy for green growth.
Government requests national training and briefing on green growth
Upon the request of the Government of Cambodia, ESDD, UNESCAP is preparing a national training seminar that is to be held in January 2007 in Phnom Penh .
The seminar will focus on the application of the green growth approach and is tailored to fit senior officials and decision makers from various Cambodian ministries, such as Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Environment, Mine and Energy, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Rural Development, the Ministry of Public Work and Transportation, the Ministry of Education,
Youth and Sport, the Ministry of Urbanization, Land Management and Construction, the Ministry of Economy and Finance,
the Ministry of Meteorology and Water, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The training seminar will cover the four major tracks of the green growth approach: green tax and budget reform; sustainable infrastructure (energy, ware and transport); sustainable consumption, and the promotion of green business.
A similar training seminar will be held later in 2007 for local government authorities in Thailand . Those include Directors of Provincial Environmental Departments and line agencies, International Cooperation Agencies and NGOs involved in Sustainable Development.
Kazakhstan - September 2007
National training workshop hosted by the Government of Kazakhstan
The Regional Adviser (RA) on Environment and Sustainable Development contributed to a training workshop on Sustainable Development held on 19-20 October 2006 for the Working Group under the Council for Sustainable Development of Republic of Kazakhstan.
He gave two presentations, the first on Green Growth, which was specifically requested by the Government; and the second on Eco-efficiency, Eco-effectiveness, Sustainability and Sustainable Development. He also discussed with a number of Working Group members, and contributed comments on the draft Sustainable Development Strategy Concept Paper prepared by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
On 21 October 2006, the RA had a meeting with H. E. Dr Nurlan Iskakov, Minister of Environmental Protection, in the morning where they shared ideas and information on sustainable development. Later in the afternoon, the RA gave a Seminar at the Euro-Asian National University to about 60 undergraduate students on issues relating to environmental pollution/degradation, green growth, eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness, so as to raise their awareness on these issues within the context of Kazakhstan.
China - August 2006
M-me. Zhao Jiarong announces six major measures of the resources saving society initiative in China in support of the Green Growth approach, August 2006
At the 2nd Green Growth Policy Dialogue on the Role of Public Policy in Providing Sustainable Consumption Choices: Resources Saving Society and Green Growth held in Beijing , China in May 2006, M-me. Zhao Jiarong, Director-General, Department of Environment and Resource Conservation, National Development and Reform Commission of P.R. China (NDRC) announced the following six major national measures in pursuit of green growth and a resources saving society:
To establish sound legislation, regulation and standardization framework;
To speed up optimization of the industrial structure, including improvements of energy consumption and use of high quality and alternative energy;
To promote improvement of technological processes and scientific research for energy efficiency and recycling technologies;
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To improve energy consumption management;
To develop appropriate and further improve existing incentive policies;
To develop new tools and mechanism such as energy efficiency labeling and energy and water conservation product certification to guide and provide sustainable consumption choices for consumers.
The Resource Saving Society Initiative developed and promoted by the Department of Environment and Resource Conservation of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is currently implemented by the Government of China through the National 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010).
