Equitable Climate Technology Access: Patent Law Reforms and Trips Flexibilities in the Global South

Abstract

Climate mitigation and adaptation increasingly depend on advanced technologies that are protected by patent law, a regime built around innovation incentives and exclusivity.   These incentives stimulate research and development, but they also risk restricting the diffusion of essential climate technology, particularly across the Global South.   This paper examines these concerns of affordability, diffusion, and technological dependence through a socio-legal and policy lens. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ('TRIPS') offers a partial answer through built-in flexibilities that allow states to balance public interest against patent protection objectives without abandoning the latter.   The paper critically examines why Global South countries have largely under-utilised these flexibilities and how they might be operationalised more effectively. Drawing on doctrinal analysis alongside case studies of compulsory licensing, patent pooling, government use, and technology transfer obligations, the paper argues that the limited deployment of TRIPS flexibilities in the climate domain reflects structural asymmetries in global IP governance rather than any deficit of legal authority.   Effective deployment requires not only legal clarity but administrative preparedness and genuine coordination between intellectual property, climate, and industrial policy. The paper closes with a set of concrete recommendations directed at Global South governments, the TRIPS Council, and multilateral technology-transfer institutions, contributing a ground-level analysis of how patent law can better answer the urgency of climate change.