Promoting the “development dividend” of climate technology transfer: can cross-sector partnerships help?

Future climate change policy in developing countries is likely to require both technology transfer and the achievement of a “development dividend.” This paper analyzes how cross-sector partnerships between investors, municipalities, and citizens can enhance both technology transfer and local deliberation about development benefits. Adopting a political institutional approach, the paper compares examples of partnerships involving waste-to-energy investment in India, the Philippines, and Thailand to consider how more and less complex forms of contracting and deliberation may advance policy. Building partnerships that can reduce costs and increase local deliberation is an important complement to formal mechanisms such as the Clean Development Mechanism.