More Inclusive, Accessible Science, Innovation Systems Key for Sustainable Development, Deputy Secretary-General Tells World Intellectual Property Organization Conference

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s opening remarks at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Conference on Thinking about Industrial Property, Sustainability and the Future of the Planet, in Lisbon today: 

It is a pleasure to be here with you in Lisbon, and let me begin by appreciating the warm welcome of the Government of Portugal.

We are together today to explore how industrial property can boost innovation and support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We are at an all-hands-on deck moment.  In spite of being at a moment in history, where we have never been so evolved as a world, we find halfway to 2030, poverty and hunger are growing again.  Conflicts are proliferating, divisions are widening, and the climate crisis is escalating.

We are not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.  In fact, only about 12 per cent of goals are on track; 30 per cent have seen no movement or even reversed.  But it is not too late to turn the tide.  And we are determined to do just that.

Industrial property is a key element in our joint efforts to generate new ideas and solutions to accelerate progress across all SDGs.  We need to drive key transitions across climate and biodiversity, energy, food systems, education, jobs, and social protection as well as digital connectivity.

We cannot mitigate climate change without clean and efficient energy technologies, sustainable transport, low-carbon production and nature conservation and restoration.  We cannot advance climate change adaptation without disaster resilient infrastructure, as well as data and nature-based solutions.  We cannot tackle the risk of diseases without a combination of affordable medicine, genomics, diagnostics and immunology underpinned by greater access and affordability. 

We cannot address rampant food insecurity without more widely available heat resistant crops, green fertilizers, and climate-smart technologies.  And we cannot achieve biodiversity conservation and restoration without better tools and data to support monitoring and decision-making and new technologies that improve the sustainability of our production and consumption patterns.

The United Nations is ready to deepen our collaboration with the intellectual property system and we count on each of you to mainstream the SDGs in your areas of work.  Together, we must better align the promise of innovation and industrial policy with tangible progress towards sustainability and equality to drive transformative change on a global scale.

Allow me to share four quick reflections.  First, we must build systems where the benefits of science are shared fairly and equitably.  Science and technical knowledge are the foundation for a prosperous and secure future. 

But that remains theoretical if its benefits remain inaccessible to most people across the world.  The paradox we face is that those who stand to benefit the most from the latest advances in renewable energy, medicine and agriculture often face the biggest barriers in accessing them.  A case in point is the grotesque inequities we witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Long after vaccines and therapeutics were widely available in rich countries, the pandemic continued to wreak havoc across many developing countries.

That is why investing in mechanisms for more efficient and effective technology transfer and strengthening existing mechanisms such as the Technology Facilitation Mechanism at the United Nations is so important.

Second, science and innovation ecosystems must become more inclusive and representative.  This means breaking down the barriers that hold all of us back.  Chief among these barriers is the lack of access to affordable financing, which inhibits the ability of developing countries to contribute meaningfully in research, development, technology and innovation.  Intellectual property is now the most valuable asset class on the planet and yet establishing intellectual property value and harnessing the economic potential and benefits of intellectual property assets remain the domain of developed economies.

Women make up under a third of the workforce across science, technology, engineering, and maths and even less in cutting edge fields like artificial intelligence.  We must do more to promote women and girl scientists everywhere to unleash our world’s enormous untapped talent.

Third, we must break down the siloes between the science community, policymakers and the private sector and work much more closely together.  At the United Nations, we are committed to strengthening this interdisciplinary collaboration and form new partnerships to share knowledge, for example through the annual Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs.

As a practical example, the Secretary-General’s recently published policy brief for a Global Digital Compact calls for the development of multilevel and interoperable standards for data quality, measurement and use — in full respect of intellectual property rights — to enable safe and secure data flows and advance towards a more inclusive global economy.

Fourth, we must reconsider the balance between incentivizing creativity and facilitating technology diffusion.  Transfers of “green” and decarbonization technologies for climate adaptation and mitigation strategies are becoming especially urgent for least developed countries.  This is a matter of justice — and self-interest.

Least developed countries have accounted for barely 1 per cent of total carbon dioxide emissions but suffered nearly 70 per cent of worldwide deaths caused by climate-change disasters over the past 50 years.  The deserve our solidarity — and more importantly, they deserve our investments. In practice, this could mean extending more flexibilities in the context of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to facilitate greater access to clean energy technologies.

Furthermore, we could better align the international framework applicable to intellectual property rights with the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities” set out in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  Such steps — combined with tailored national IP regimes — would go a long way in better aligning the multilateral trade regime with international climate change agreements.

By harnessing the power of industrial property, we can unlock the potential of ground-breaking technologies, advance inclusive growth, and achieve greater equality.  This conference is a critical opportunity to do just that.