The Intellectual Property Right Issue In Climate Change-Retated Technology Transfer

Climate change is a global issue of concern since the 1970s. Since the 21 century, the attention from international community has been unprecedented. In December,2015, the 21st Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was held in Paris, during which nearly 200 parties agreed to Paris Agreement to deal with climate change. Ban ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, stated that we have entered a new era of global cooperation on climate change, which is the most complicated problem faced by mankind. All countries in the world should cooperate to achieve the same goal. It is the first time in human history, which used to be unimaginable, but now irresistible. Organizations working at the forefront of fighting climate change, like IPCC, UNFCCC, have made decisions and released reports to illustrate that the transfer of climate-friendly technologies, or environmentally sound technologies is the key to tackling climate change. Globally, the patent rights to this kind of technologies are controlled by large corporations in developed countries, and developing and the least developed countries need to pay huge cost to get access to them. Therefore, there is a North-South imbalance on climate change technology transfer.Since 1990s, the international climate change law system has been gradually established, with UNFCCC as the core. It has provided abundant legal foundation for encouraging international climate change technology transfer, but these laws and regulations are mostly "soft", without binding obligations or commitments. Additionally, the negotiations among developed and developing countries during each climate conference have been extremely difficult, especially on emissions reduction commitments, therefore, few effective and enforceable agreements were reached. Making progress on climate change technology transfer is slow. The recent conference in Paris did not make substantial progress either, though it did emphasize implementing technology transfer and drafting a technology framework.Laws and regulations on the protection of intellectual property rights make it even more difficult to practice climate change technology transfer. TRIPS under WTO is a representative of them. It protects intellectual property rights as a personal right, and inventions in all fields are granted with patent right. Climate change technologies has not been treated differently. Therefore, the conflict between requirements from international climate change law and the principles from international intellectual property law arises. It is a problem still to be solved to realize wide technology transfer.To achieve balance between climate change technology transfer and intellectual property rights protection, reform is to be made. This paper provides three solutions-to reform UNFCCC interior working system to practice effective enforcement mechanism; second, to learn from compulsory licensing system under WTO to design a protocol for climate change technology transfer; third, to utilized Clean Development Mechanism under Kyoto Protocol to prioritize technology transfer when it comes to project evaluation. Additionally, it requires time and practice to realize effective climate change technology transfer and patent right protection at the same time. The cooperation and coordination between countries and international regimes.