Patents don’t solve—businesses and consumers can’t pay for green tech

One other parameter that may dilute the signal of social value produced by a market-based platform for incentivizing innovation is the inability of consumers to pay for various innovative products and services. This is often pointed out in discussions regarding distributive implications of the patent system, as its reliance on the market may result in undersupplying production for the poor, particularly when the rich and the poor have different needs.186 This problem is evident, for example, in the global health field, where due to the poor’s limited ability to pay, very few medicines are developed for diseases that affect them but have little or no impact upon the rich.187

Inability to pay may surely dilute the signal of social value produced by the patent system in the context of green innovation as well. Some low-income consumers may not have the means to pay for eco-friendly products, even if they would otherwise have wanted to.188 The same goes with respect to developing countries, in their capacity as consumers of innovative goods. This may be highly problematic in regard to solutions that are particularly required to address the needs of poor populations.189 Indeed, in light of “extremely heterogeneous local conditions,” different countries may have different needs for technological solutions that would enable them to participate in the global effort to mitigate climate change and adapt to its consequences.190 For instance, countries may differ from each other in terms of the availability of certain alternative energy resources.191 As another example, a country with a greater reliance on the agricultural sector may be in dire need of various solutions that enable adaptation to increasing temperatures, which are less of a concern for other, more industrial countries.192 To the extent that a developing country, in a need for such an innovative solution, does not have the means to pay for it, then, if we rely on private markets—such a solution may never be developed.193 Sure enough, due to the global nature of climate change, this may ultimately have a detrimental impact on the entire planet.194