Technology Transfer for Climate Change Adaptation

Technology Transfer for Climate Change Adaptation

254763015030

IISD
26.8.25

English

38 pp.

633 Sc28

This paper explores how technology transfer for climate change adaptation has been understood and discussed at the intersection of climate and trade policy. It highlights that although both global climate policy, primarily under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and trade policy, including through the World Trade Organization, recognize the significance of technology and its transfer in addressing climate change, these policy domains have largely evolved in isolation. This separation has led to siloed discussions on technology transfer and missed opportunities to facilitate the transfer of technologies for adaptation, especially to countries in the Global South. The paper clarifies and critically discusses the concept of adaptation technology, understood as the application of technology to reduce vulnerability or enhance the resilience of natural and human systems to the impacts of climate change. It then highlights how both climate and trade policy discuss technology transfer for climate adaptation, drawing on key policy documents and milestones of the last decades. The paper then examines how countries in the Global South identify their adaptation technology needs through instruments like national adaptation plans and technology needs assessments. The paper concludes that while both climate and trade frameworks recognize the crucial role of trade in international technology transfer, a stronger linkage between climate and trade policy is necessary to better leverage trade’s potential in facilitating technology transfer for climate adaptation. It provides recommendations for trade and climate policy-makers, as well as development partners, to strengthen these connections and enhance the role of trade in adaptation technology transfer

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