European Commission publishes a report on the relationship between IPR and climate change

In March 2009, the European Commission published a report titled ‘Are IPR a Barrier to the Transfer of Climate Change Technology?’. The report traces patent protection data for seven emissions-reducing energy technologies in a representative sample of low-income developing countries and emerging market economies from 1998-2008. The study finds that IPRs do not constitute a barrier to the transfer of carbon abatement technology from developed countries, neither to low-income developing countries nor to emerging market economies. Economic factors are said to stand in the way of achieving the carbon abatement objectives of low-income countries. For emerging market economies that have the capacity and market size to use innovative technologies, further improvements in patent protection could actually stimulate domestic innovation and the transfer of technologies from foreign patent holders.
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2009/february/tradoc_142371.pdf