ENERGY CRISIS: the (non)viability of the
use of intellectual property rights
towards sustainability
Liz Beatriz Sass
Melissa Ely Melo
UFSC/Brazil
ABSTRACT
1. Sustainable
optimism
development
and
thecnology
2. Intellectual property rights and the green
economy: eco-efficiency
3. Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs) and
Intellectual Property Rights: main challenges
1.Sustainable Development and
Thecnology Optimism
• “Politics of consensus”: integrates the aspirations of
different countries, people and social classes present in
the "battlefield" that involves the appropriation of
nature;
• Intent to transform economic growth into “sustainable”
through market mechanisms, assigning economic
values ​and property rights to environmental services and
natural resources.
(LEFF, 2006, p. 137)
1.Sustainable Development and
Thecnology Optimism
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The proposals can overcome the
foundational contradiction of the
capitalist
system:
the
degrading
appropriation of natural resources?
1. Sustainable Development and
Thecnology Optimism
• Environmental Crisis: presented as a result of not assigning
property rights or attribution of “market values” ​to
environmental goods and services;
– Denies the fact of being an effect of capital
accumulation;
– Considers that market laws are sufficient to correct
the ecological imbalances and social inequalities.
(LEFF, 2006, p. 139)
1. Sustainable Development and
Thecnology Optimism
• THECNOLOGICAL OPTIMISM:
– Goal: To provide economic growth as a sustainable
process, based on the free market and technology.
Not to internalize the ecological conditions of
production;
– Technology: Understood as the instrument for
containing degradation effects.
(LEFF, 2006, p. 143)
1. Sustainable Development and
Thecnology Optimism
• Criticism of the “Technology Optimism”:
– 1) Introduction of New Pollutants brings future problems for the
integrity of ecosystems;
– 2) Low Impact of Innovation - profound changes in the economy’s
structure require large-scale action;
– 3) Does not minimize the use of energy, materials, production of
waste and pollution;
– 4) Does not consider all environmental costs intrinsic to the
extraction, production, consumption and disposal of materials;
(MONTIBELLER-FILHO, 2008, p. 257)
1. Sustainable Development and
Thecnology Optimism
• Energy crises
– Population growth;
expansion of industrial,
commercial and agricultural are factors that increase
energy consumption year after year;
– The relation: production X consumption - considered
in worrying levels due to the expected economic
growth;
– Even “clean” or “green” technologies have pros and
cons in relation to economic, social and
environmental issues.
(CAVAGNOLI; MENEZES, 2012, 197; 199)
Weak
Sustainability
2. Intellectual property rights
and the green economy: eco-efficiency
• Green Economy: eco-efficiency and technology will
allow an acceleration of growth, ensuring a high
standard of consumption for all, reducing poverty,
reducing the anthropogenic impact on the
environment and allowing the creation of green jobs.
2. Intellectual property rights and the
green economy: eco-efficiency
PNUMA – 2008 – Green Economy and Sustainable
Development.
ECO-EFFICIENCY
– sustainable technologies
GREEN CONSUMPTION
GREEN JOBS
3. Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs) and
Intellectual Property Rights: main challenges
• What does ESTs mean?
– Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs) encompass
technologies that have the potential for significantly
improved environmental performance relative to other
technologies. Broadly speaking, these technologies:
•
•
•
•
•
* Alternative Energy
* Energy Conservation
* Nuclear energy
protect the environment;
are less polluting;
use resources in a sustainable manner;
recycle more of their wastes and products;
handle all residual wastes in a more environmentally acceptable
way than the technologies for which they are substitutes.
(Agenda 21)
3. Environmentally Sound Technologies (EST) and
Intellectual Property Rights: main challenges
– Why is it convenient to use the IPR to EST?
• To attract investment in manufacturing and marketing
(usually green technology is costly, with unpredictable
results).
• It is the best way to force" TT.
Patents
Industrial
Design
Trademarks
3. Environmentally Sound Technologies (EST) and
Intellectual Property Rights: main challenges
• "Groups of patents", "common" patents,
cross-licensing, standardization agreements...
• Complex technologies: different
technology sectors;
• The disagreement over the role of IP and
patents EST for TT in developing countries.
3. Environmentally Sound Technologies (EST) and
Intellectual Property Rights: main challenges
Conclusions:
• Intellectual property rights are instruments that
can contribute to the promotion of eco-efficiency
with regard to overcoming the energy crisis, but
only from the perspective of weak sustainability.
• Considering this perspective (weak sustainability)
the intellectual property rights must still
overcome several challenges in relation to ESTs,
especially with regard to technology transfer, to
thereby minimally contribute to eco-efficiency.