Techno-Nationalism in the Context of Energy Transition: Regulating Technology Innovation Transfer in Offshore Wind Technologies.

Abstract

Technological nationalism, or techno-nationalism, refers to the protectionist behaviour of some governments towards technology innovation development and transfer. Governments that adopt this position develop law and policy designed to ensure that the benefits of technological innovation support their national interest. They may also constrain the spread of technology knowledge to foreign countries. This policy is based on the belief that the restrictions on transfer of innovation will benefit national economic growth, protect national wealth and secure energy independency. Although not a new phenomenon, there is a global techno-nationalism revival in the context of energy transition. Most techno-nationalist measures adopted in this context will be trade-restrictive. Therefore, this chapter raises the issue of their compatibility with the international law regime of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and analyses the margin of appreciation left to national governments. It reviews how national legal frameworks support these policies by reference to energy transition legislation, local content requirements, public procurement and intellectual property rights. It compares techno-nationalism behaviour by nation states to the duties to share and transfer technology innovation in a liberalized and competitive energy environment. The pressing need to access clean energy technologies combined with the need to continue developing new ones has resulted in several multilateral initiatives inspired by more a techno-globalist thinking. Among the applicable rules are technology transfer requirements under the regimes of the WTO and of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The chapter concludes by examining the need for legal innovation to ensure technology innovation transfer. This chapter takes offshore wind technologies as case study, as it is one of the fastest growing clean energy technology sectors with huge export and employment potential.

Keywords: techno-nationalism, techno-globalism, techno-regionalism, clean energy technologies, offshore wind, WTO, UNFCCC, green goods, public procurements, export subsidies, intellectual property rights, technology transfer