Should the solidarity found in climate change now help to fight poverty?

In addition to the fight against climate change, the fight against poverty in the world is an urgent concern for the global community. Should the solidarity found in climate change now help to fight poverty? Due to the increasingly visible extent of climate change, the states of the world are increasingly willing to cooperate internationally. Developing countries in particular can benefit from this. The technology transfer agreed upon in the context of climate change could enable weaker countries to benefit from the technologies of other countries and improve their own structures. However, an important aspect here is the absorptive capacity of the respective country. For technology transfer to be successful, developing countries must have the capacity to use the relevant technologies sensibly from the outset. Both local technical knowledge and regional legal frameworks play a key role in this respect. As an example, the World Bank estimates that an environmentally friendly tariff regime would lead to an increase in trade in the corresponding technology. However, companies prefer to invest in projects where high profits and high sales can be expected. These conditions are not found in developing countries, where the benefits would be immense. This is precisely why policymakers must facilitate and promote technology transfer. In their article "Trade in clean energy technologies: sliding from protection to protectionism through obligations for technology transfer in climate change, or Vice Versa?” the authors show the different types of technology transfer and the importance of the regional legal framework. According to the authors, the policy makers saw the potential in the trade with clean technologies. In their article, the authors correctly concluded that countries that have adapted their regulations to the international market have a stronger capacity to absorb innovative technology. In this context one must also see the problem that with the increase of the climatic change ever more resources become scarce. This scarcity of resources could lead to conflicts that would be more likely to hinder development. This problem exists to a large extent in the field of energy, as demand is rising massively, especially here due to the growing population and increasing industrialization. In this context, however, technology transfer may well be a solution for using other or local resources in such cases. A good example of this is solar energy. In regions where there is no or insufficient power supply, technological solutions for the use of solar energy can ensure that even remote regions can use energy. This does not require the installation of large photovoltaic systems. Even small-scale measures, such as the use of solar powered cooking stoves, can help to both improve the quality of life in these regions and ensure that their development takes an ecological direction. In this sense, one can agree with the authors that mainly the emerging countries benefited from the technology transfer. However, to be fair, they also point out that these countries themselves are also involved in the development of new technologies and are not exclusively dependent on technology transfer.

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