WIPO Conference to Address Role of Innovation in Meeting Climate Change Challenges

Geneva, July 8, 2011
MA/2011/58

An international conference hosted by WIPO on July 11-12, 2011 will address the role of innovation and technology in the development and diffusion of green technologies to provide solutions to the challenges posed by climate change. The WIPO Conference on Innovation and Climate Change, which brings together major stakeholders – international organizations, government, industry, and civil society – will focus on innovation partnerships between the public and private sector to develop and diffuse relevant technologies. WIPO Director General Francis Gurry and Mr. Luis Alfonso de Alba, Ambassador, Special Representative for Climate Change, Mexico, will open the Conference.

Research and development (R&D) partnerships, coupled with an enabling policy environment, are critical to the process of innovation. The Conference will address how the principal factors stimulating innovation can be integrated into coherent strategies that span across R&D, national production capabilities, access to markets, effective regulations, and sound intellectual property management.

The intellectual property system is one of the principal policy tools providing incentives for innovation, for investment in research and development, and in structuring collaborations, joint ventures, and licenses aimed at transferring technological solutions. The Conference will explore options that accelerate technology transfer and diffusion, and the contribution intellectual property makes in stimulating innovation  supporting innovation and the transfer, adaptation, dissemination and adoption of environmentally sound technologies. A panel discussion will explore WIPO’s work in that regard.

The Conference will cover a range of issues relating to innovation and partnership models, provide concrete examples of technology transfer relating to climate change, and address questions relating to the financing of technology diffusion. The conference is divided into four plenary sessions and three simultaneous break-out sessions.

The Conference will open July 11, 2011, at 9.30 a.m at the International Conference Center Geneva (CICG) Room 1. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. Registration is required for this event which is open to general public.