Session 3: International co-operation to accelerate green technology innovation and transfer

Jens Lundsgaard, Deputy Director at the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, moderated this session that focused on the challenges and best practices for international cooperation on green science and innovation, and key lessons learnt from international collaboration on COVID-19 research for the green transition.

In her scene-setting presentation, Alessandra Colecchia, Head of the Science and Technology Policy Division at the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, highlighted that today’s strategic competition in science, technology and innovation (STI) and geographic concentration of the mineral resources needed for several green technologies create some challenges for international STI cooperation. At the same time, she underlined that international cooperation was at the heart of the STI response to COVID-19, including through better data sharing and collaborative platforms. She presented three key elements that could improve international green STI cooperation. First, collaborative platforms, such as the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator (or ACT-Accelerator), have proved effective in the health sector and could be replicated in other domains such as climate change. Second, scaling up blended finance can help to accelerate the development and deployment of green technology. Thirdly, since COVID-19 has demonstrated that international mobilisation of STI for specific objectives is possible and can accelerate innovation, the application of a “global mission” framework to sustainability challenges should be considered.

David Elvira-Martinez, Head of Sanofi Global Corporate Public Policy, argued that the factors that helped to accelerate vaccines innovation were: enhanced data sharing; collaborative consultation and dialogue between industry and regulators to speed-up approval while ensuring safety and efficacy; private-private partnerships to accelerate R&D and manufacturing; the establishment of public-private risk-sharing governance mechanism that enabled early investments in production capacity. Building on these insights, he argued that continuous knowledge and data sharing, sustained investments in research across sectors, clear global regulatory and legal frameworks, and partnerships will be essential in addressing other global public good challenges, such as climate change. He concluded by focusing on green growth in the health sector, and highlighted that certain diseases can double or triple a person’s carbon emissions: better health means lower emissions. A common language for collecting data and baselining emissions in the biopharma value chain, and regulatory standards that account for low-carbon treatments and care delivery models are needed to accelerate green growth in the sector.

Joanna Drake, Deputy Director-General at the European Commission Directorate General for Research and Innovation, highlighted that the Horizon Europe Program aims at accelerating green research and innovation, which underpin the ambitions of the EU Green Deal and focuses on promoting collaboration between and beyond EU Member States. She mentioned that the EU has joined the Mission Innovation Initiative, which is a group of 22 countries aiming at accelerating clean energy innovation, and has a co-leadership role for the Clean Hydrogen and the Urban Transition missions. She also stressed that 48 cities joined the Urban Transition Mission, which builds on the EU’s Cities Mission under the Horizon Europe programme, during COP27

Amy Dietterich, Director of the Global Challenges Division at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), underscored the key role that intellectual property (IP) plays in innovation systems: it creates incentives to innovate and makes information about innovations more transparently available. WIPO administers the Global Patent Cooperation Treaty (GPCT) that allows innovators to protect their innovations for a certain period of time, but requires them to disclose certain information. Building on the large amount of information collected in the context of the GPCT, the WIPO Green Database, which can be accessed for free, promotes diffusion of information about new green technologies and matching of their demand and supply.

John-Arne Røttingen, Ambassador for Global Health at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, argued that COVID-19 further stressed the importance of adopting a One Health approach in policymaking to capture the interconnections among health, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Then, he highlighted that an independent evaluation of the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator (or ACT-Accelerator) found that it was effective in mobilising USD 23.7 billion for R&D, market shaping, and pool procurement of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. However, there were large inequities in access to vaccines between low- and high-income countries. He echoed Professor Mazzucato’s comments on the role of conditionality in public support to ensure fair risk- and benefit- sharing between public and private sectors. Finally, he highlighted the need for global collective mechanisms to coordinate R&D, and called for the development of national, regional and global mission-oriented programmes. In this context, the Global Research Council, which comprises the heads of science and engineering funding agencies from around the world, is currently exploring ways to collaborate on mission-oriented innovation for sustainable development.

Xiaojun Grace Wang, Deputy Director for Programme and Operations at the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), stressed that greater international cooperation, through SouthSouth cooperation among developing countries and with the support of developed countries through triangular partnerships, is needed to address global sustainability challenges. SouthSouth policy coordination and regional integration schemes can help developing countries to create the conditions for ambitious development agendas that involve structural transformation. Furthermore, increased South-South foreign direct investment and knowledge sharing would contribute to relieve the capital constraints that hinder investment in green technologies, and help developing countries to identify and adopt concrete actions for climate mitigation and adaptation.

The open discussion focused on the role of regulations to promote green innovation. David Elvira-Martinez argued that one of the lessons learned from the pandemic is that it is possible to have flexible regulations without jeopardising safety. Alessandra Colecchia highlighted that anticipatory governance of emerging technologies might promote more productive innovations that are better aligned with social needs. John-Arne Røttingen agreed on the positive impact of enhanced regulator–industry interactions, and argued that digital technologies can increase transparency in value chains. Amy Dietterich highlighted that an independent research from the Questrom School of Business (Boston University) concluded that IP was an important jump starter for the development of COVID-19 vaccines but also found three main sticking points: a lack of transparency in licensing agreements, a lack of access to vaccines developed by public funding, and “vaccine nationalism”. Joanna Drake remarked that responses to current and future crises must accelerate the green transition rather than slow it down.

Key takeaways and knowledge gaps

• Valuable lessons from the rapid development and roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines that could be applied to green STI include the use of collaborative platforms, increased cooperation between regulators and industry, and the development of innovative mechanisms to share risk between firms and governments.

• There is often a limited understanding of how the global IP system works and how it can be successfully leveraged for green innovation.

• Trans-disciplinary research, which combines knowledge from different scientific disciplines and public and private stakeholders, can help to address major global challenges.

• Governments should support multilateral cooperation on science and innovation, including SouthSouth and Triangular initiatives, since this can help to maximise benefits while managing cost and risk sharing.

• Further research is needed on how to design effective blended finance mechanisms since they can help to crowd in private capital and increase funding for the development and deployment of green technologies.