The Copenhagen Accord has not led to a global target for greenhouse gas emissions and as a result bottom-up, national, and technology-specific policies are gaining importance. This paper discusses policies directed towards three areas relevant to the development of clean energy technology:

the creation of enabling environments
furthering research and development (R&D)
the provision of financing.

The authors argue that programmes to advance clean energy technology are likely to be most effective if they:

focus on well defined and broadly endorsed national priorities
strengthen developing country capacity and enabling environments
have sufficient scale
run over multiple years
engage public and private entities
promote broad knowledge sharing
are coordinated and harmonised with international support.

It is noted that increased R&D capabilities are needed in developing and least developed countries alike. Part of a long-term strategy for clean energy technology should therefore be to implement structural programmes for capacity building in all phases of the technology innovation chain.To enable financing of clean energy technology, the authors argue that finance and technology programmes need to be aligned, because the type of financing depends on the technology. The paper concludes that in the post-Copenhagen environment, countries and international organisations may be best served by applying pragmatic approaches that enhance long-term commitment to collaboration through existing bilateral and multilateral partnerships and demonstrate a commitment to rapid scaling up of technology cooperation and financing.