Recasting ‘truisms’ of low carbon technology cooperation through innovation systems: insights from the developing world

Abstract

A key challenge of approaches to low carbon technology transfer/cooperation is that too much attention is placed on outcomes, neglecting technology cooperation processes. An innovation systems (IS) analytical lens can help to understand dimensions of what makes low carbon technology cooperation more effective, as IS emphasizes the importance of these technology processes. In developing countries, IS analysis tends to focus on activities of firms, the public sector and universities (also coined the triple helix) aimed at improving the quality of ‘hardware’ while lowering the costs of production. While important, these aspects constitute partial segments of IS. This paper therefore advances the concept of IS within developing countries in the following ways. This paper questions the assumption that these IS are absent and that producer–user interaction is weak, through unpacking the notion regarding who is innovating and what is low carbon innovation. In doing so, we capture the roles of alternative actors (e.g. lay people versus only experts), and activities and products (e.g. ‘improvised’ goods and processes versus frontier, or second-tier, technologies) within these systems.