Law Commons^™

The Patent System And Climate Change, Joshua Sarnoff

College of Law Faculty

The amount of greenhouse gas emissions and consequent climate changes and social responses will depend substantially upon the rapid development and widespread dissemination of a wide variety of new mitigation and adaptation technologies. The international approach adopted by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Cancun will focus the worldwide innovation system more closely on private funding and markets, and thus on the acquisition of patents at the front end of the coming innovation pipeline. The choice to rely on private markets and patents is highly debatable. But it is certain to create substantial tensions for the patent system …