This guidebook, Overcoming barriers to the transfer and diffusion of climate technologies, addresses the challenges after a Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) team has identified, assessed and prioritized technologies for climate change, i.e. the process of overcoming barriers for the transfer and diffusion of technologies.

The purpose of the Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) project is to assist participant developing country parties to identify and analyze priority technology needs, which can form the basis for a portfolio of climate technology projects and programs to facilitate the transfer of, and access to, climate technologies and know how through implementation of Article 4.5 of the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC).

TNAs are central to the work of the parties to the Convention on Technology Transfer and present an opportunity to track an evolving need for new equipment, techniques, practical knowledge and skills, which are necessary to mitigate GHG emissions and / or reduce the vulnerability of sectors and livelihoods to the adverse impacts of climate change.

The main components of the project are:

1. Through country-driven participatory processes, to identify and prioritize technologies that can contribute to the mitigation and adaptation goals of the participant countries, while meeting their national sustainable development goals and priorities.
2. To identify barriers hindering the acquisition, deployment and diffusion of prioritized technologies and to develop enabling frameworks to overcome the barriers and facilitate the transfer, adoption and diffusion of selected technologies in the participant countries.
3. To develop Technology Action Plans (TAP) specifying a road map of activities (based on the enabling frameworks) at the sectoral and cross-cutting levels to facilitate the transfer, adoption and diffusion of selected technologies in the participant countries.

The guidebook relates to the second component in the TNA project referred to above. The ambition has been to produce practical and operational guidance on how to assess the barriers to identified technologies in the countries concerned, and on how to address and overcome these barriers.

The targeted audience is the TNA national teams and their consultants. It is important to stress that the guidebook is intended and applicable for concrete technologies, not for a whole sector (e.g. transport) or technology group (e.g. renewable energy). As there is no pre-set answer to enhancing technology transfer, policy actions need be tailored to the specific context and interests. Therefore, the guidebook presents a flexible approach, identifying various options for analysts and decision-makers.

Read Overcoming barriers to the transfer and diffusion of climate technologies