The global institutional frameworks and the diffusion of renewable energy technologies in the BRICS countries
Isabel Bodas Freitas, Eva Dantas & Michiko Iizuka
#2010-045
This paper examines the role of the global institutional frameworks on
the national processes of innovation diffusion. we focus on the
influence of the Kyoto mechanisms on the diffusion of renewable energy
technologies in the BRICS countries i.e. Brazil, China India, Russia and
South Africa. Our preliminary analysis suggests that the Kyoto
Mechanisms may support the diffusion of some simple, low cost and mature
technologies which are already diffused in the host countries, rather
than the diffusion of new renewable energy technologies. This
observation raises questions about the extent to which the Kyoto
Mechanisms at its present state create major incentives for the
diffusion of new renewable energy technologies in the BRICS, in the
absence of a indigenous technological efforts and capabilities in new
renewable technologies and national policy initiatives to attract and
leverage the implementation of Kyoto Mechanism projects to support
technology diffusion. We analyse these issues theoretically as well as
empirically making use of national aggregated data from the World
Development Indicators, the International Energy Agency, the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and secondary sources.
JEL: O33, O19 , O13
Keywords: technology diffusion; renewable energy; global institutions;
BRICS, Kyoto mechanisms
UNU-MERIT Working Papers
ISSN 1871-9872