Combating climate change will require a global effort, but the tools and resources for this fight are currently held by just a few affluent countries. How can we distribute these often-proprietary technologies to developing nations whose participation is vital to achieving international climate goals? Further, how can we do so while also incentivizing wealthy States to continue groundbreaking research and development in this field? These are thorny questions, but author Joy Y. Xiang is equal to the task in her meticulously constructed text, Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Cleantech: A Pathway for Developing Countries. With clear-headed analysis and precise prose, Xiang unpacks how intellectual property law and sustainable development can be cornerstones for the widespread adoption of new technologies designed to mitigate or adapt to climate change (so-called “cleantech”).

Xiang begins with an efficient introductory chapter, sketching the contours of the underlying problem: intellectual property rights (or IPR) have been a long-running sticking point in the global climate response. Through multiple conferences and rounds of negotiations organized under the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), developing countries have repeatedly pushed for a reduction in IPR protections for new cleantech. The thrust of these arguments is typified by a notable proposal presented by Ecuador at a 2013 WTO meeting. The proposal asserted that existing IPR regimes inherently facilitate the monopolistic hoarding of clean technologies by richer nations. To ensure knowledge transfer to the developing world, Ecuador suggested that cleantech should be categorically excluded from patentability or subject to compulsory licensing rules that require the technology to be shared at a fair price. While several developing countries supported the proposal (including major economies such as India, Brazil, and China), developed nations such as the United States balked. Instead, the latter suggested that instituting stronger IPR protections within developing countries would facilitate transfer while rewarding innovation. This impasse has remained the status quo for over twenty years, and Xiang suggests a new approach is needed to continue the forward momentum in the climate movement.

Scholarly monographs should always proceed logically, but the second chapter of this work highlights Xiang's special strength for methodical writing. While not explicitly titled as such, the entire chapter is essentially a “definitions” section, interrogating every acronym, category, and term of art that appears in subsequent pages. With the caveat that my own biases may be at play here (as attorneys have a special affection for defining key terms), this exercise contributes tremendous context and value. Even in high-level academic discussions of climate issues, terms such as “developing country” and “clean technology” are regularly bandied about, eliding the crucial nuances packed within them. Xiang recognizes that there are important differences among developing countries, which she sorts into tiered categories using objective metrics drawn from respected international reports (e.g., Least Developed Countries, Mid-tier Developing Countries, and large Emerging Economies like China). She similarly crafts an inclusive definition of “cleantech,” acknowledging that it must encompass both the technologies themselves, as well as any associated know-how, expertise, and training.

With this groundwork laid, Xiang devotes the following chapter (a full third of the book) to detailing the current state of clean technology transfer. She begins by examining the worldwide asymmetries in cleantech investment and patenting, which reveals predictable disparities between the most developed countries (the US, Japan, and the EU member States) and the rest of the world. While certain larger polities such as China and India have begun heavily investing in research and benefiting from technology transfer, Xiang finds that the vast majority of existing transfer occurs between the most developed States. This leads to a detailed exploration of the various proposed methods for weakening cleantech IPR, a discussion that causes Xiang to conclude that IPR is not actually the primary barrier to cleantech transfer. Rather, her analysis indicates the high cost of cleantech compared to older alternatives is a much larger factor and that weakened IPR protections would not necessarily solve this problem. Instead, she addresses various other approaches for encouraging technology transfer and combating restrictive behavior by patent holders, primarily by leveraging US and EU antitrust/competition law. This dovetails nicely with a chapter examining how some nations have fostered domestic cleantech innovation or made themselves appealing destinations for technology transfer, complete with representative case studies of Denmark, Sweden, India, Turkey, and Morocco.

Xiang then endeavors to craft her own proposal for facilitating domestic cleantech innovation in every country while also helping developing countries build capacity for cleantech importation. The proposal starts from the premise that different strategies will be appropriate based on where a country falls along the spectrum of development. For the least developed countries, Xiang proposes that the primary goal should be to build domestic capacity for technological implementation via the existing infrastructure of foreign monetary aid (which she deftly outlines throughout the chapter). For mid-tier developing countries that already have some technological capacity, as well as emerging economies like China and India, Xiang focuses on various models for mutually beneficial voluntary collaboration. In theory, these would be more likely to appeal to domestic business interests than top-down mandates from national governments. They include pathways under existing multilateral and regional instruments (such as the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism and the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism) and new, creative approaches to IPR management. These novel IPR models would be centered around the creation of a global platform that would subsidize developing countries’ cleantech purchases and match them with patent holders. For developed countries, Xiang suggests that governments send clear policy signals demonstrating long-term support for cleantech while also spurring innovation through cleantech-specific IP rules and subsidies. The book concludes with a chapter responding to critiques the author received on earlier drafts of this proposal.

From top to bottom, this is an excellently constructed work of scholarship. Virtually every section is well-researched without being overly long, establishing a solid foundation as Xiang builds to her final proposal. This isn't to say the text is perfect. Xiang's arguments are so often rock-solid that it is especially glaring when the text makes a rare logical leap or unsupported supposition. The book's organization is generally very sensible, but the extra-long third chapter could have been reorganized to avoid subsections that stretched to six digits (e.g., section 3.7.2.2.1.1). Also, while probably a necessity based on the paucity of data, several of the quantitative analyses rely heavily on the same small number of reports from non-governmental organizations, creating a risk of bias in the results. At the macro level, the attempt to cover so much ground has apparently left the work with more breadth than depth. The proposal itself is well-supported, but its scope is somewhat conservative, and it can feel more like a thoughtful synthesis of existing ideas than a wholly original proposition. Finally, though the inclusion of a chapter responding to critiques shows admirable forethought, the author's answers to those concerns were at times unpersuasive. That said, these shortcomings hardly detract from the fantastic finished product.

I would wholeheartedly recommend Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Cleantech for any academic library. Moreover, any government agency, tribunal, nonprofit, NGO, or technology company with an international or environmental focus is also likely to find great value in this book.