A Changing Climate? Clean Tech Ownership and Country Stances on Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual property rights (IPRs) for low-carbon technologies have been a contentious part of international negotiations on climate change. Developing countries have argued that IPRs hinder low-carbon development, and advocated for technology transfer using patent pools, compulsory licensing, and putting patents in the public domain. EU countries and the US oppose such measures, arguably because of their domestic political economies: as the majority of clean technology patent-holders were in these countries, it was not in their interests to weaken IPR protections. However, in the past years, the global ownership of clean tech IPRs has shifted dramatically towards new countries like China. Do these countries begin to advocate for stronger IPR protections, or do they maintain that IPR-sharing is important for technology transfer and fighting climate change? The paper will first conduct quantitative research to determine how country shares of clean tech IPRs have changed over time. Second, it will analyze whether country positions on IPRs and technology transfer reflect these new domestic structures in UN negotiations. If countries with increased clean tech ownership now support stricter IPR enforcement, this signals that IPRs may be used defensively for industry protection, and that clean tech transfer may thereby be negatively impacted.