In September, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd emphasized the need for national and global action on climate change and called for “a grand bargain” between “the developed world and the developing world in order to reach an outcome for the planet earth as a whole”.

No doubt, action on climate change will need new technology, which most likely will be predominately developed in a few, innovative countries. It is also clear, however, that if this ‘grand bargain’ is to be more than a wistful hope we need appropriate intellectual property rights in place for these new technological developments.

The chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Committee on long-term action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have, for example, been considering five distinct options to address the crucially important issue of intellectual property and climate change.