Tech transfers to developing world needed for sustainability

On Tuesday, the group within the United Nations that focuses on economic development (the Development Policy and Analysis Division) released its annual World Economic and Social Survey. The 2009 version of this report is entitled "Promoting Development, Saving the Planet," and focuses on how climate change issues will impact the developing world. It's a sprawling document, but the basic thesis is simple, and one that's widely recognized: we cannot afford to have the developing world follow an unsustainable path to modernization. From the perspective of international development, this creates multiple challenges, but there's an entire chapter of the report dedicated to technology and intellectual property issues. Because of its massive advantage in research, most sustainable technology will be produced by the developed world. This alone runs the risk of perpetuating the current inequality. But the issues run far deeper, as things like renewable energy sources have to be serviced and maintained locally, while sustainable practices will involve software and practices that have to operate within the developing economy. Even if we accept a perpetuation of the situation where the developed world sells things like solar panels to their developing partners, that's not enough to set those partners on a sustainable path. What will ultimately be needed, it's argued, is technology transfer on a massive scale, and money to make sure the technology gets put to good use.