Incentivised Licensing: A Global Green Technology Transfer Box to Facilitate the Just Transition.

This paper proposes the introduction of a global green technology transfer box which would provide tax deductions to companies which enter green licensing deals with developing countries (DC) and least developed countries (LDCs). The proposal supports the goals of Articles 10 and 11 of the Paris Agreement which concern technology transfer and capacity building. It also recognises the need to account for the different developmental states of nations to achieve a Just Transition. The paper reviews the role of patents in technology transfer and recognises that it is often not the patent, but rather the associated know-how and capacity that prove a hurdle to implementation of adaptation and mitigation technology in DCs and LDCs. It also reviews the general approaches to green taxation before focusing on the use of patent boxes. It argues that, while patent boxes have been subject to manipulation in the past, tying the benefits of the proposed international green technology transfer box to the Technology Needs Assessment of the receiving country can minimise abuse while incentivising public-private partnership. This is necessary since most green innovation is concentrated in private industry in developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]