Korean Experimentation of Knowledge and Technology Transfer to Address Climate Change in Developing Countries

• Main Authors: Taewook Huh, Hyung-Ju Kim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-04-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: Knowledge and Technology Transfer; carbon captured and utilization; waste-to-energy; uninformed transfer; national acceptability; local acceptability
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/1263

This paper explores two Korean cases of Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) to address climate change in developing countries. The target technologies were carbon capture and utilization (CCU) in a project in Bantayan Island, Philippines, and waste-to-energy (WTE) technology in Santiago, Dominican Republic. These projects were conducted by the Republic of Korea’s Green Technology Center. The study analyses the rationale of KTT (“international environment” and “motives”), its objects (technology types) and activities (“informational contacts”, “research activities”, “consulting” and “education and training”). It concludes that the KTT efforts of these two case studies can be characterized as “uninformed transfer”, given a lack of information on situational factors. In particular, these projects faced cooperation problems between national and local governments in the target countries due to different levels of commitment among different stakeholder groups. In conclusion, this study identifies the implications of an acceptability gap between national and local actors in renewable energy projects of KTT.