Issue 26: July-August 2003

South must be part of
hydrogen future – Mytelka

Colleagues congratulate Lynn Mytelka at the University of Maastricht inauguration ceremony.

Developing countries should move quickly to position themselves to capitalise on the emerging hydrogen fuel cell technology, according to Prof. Lynn Mytelka, Director of UNU Institute for New Technologies (UNU-INTECH).

Mytelka said that if developing countries continue moving down an older technological path based on conventional fuels and the internal combustion engine, it will accelerate the process of turning the South into a dumping ground for used cars and strengthen a fossil fuel-based system.

"In the interests of global environmental health, all countries need to work together to share knowledge on cleaner energy sources," she said during an inaugural lecture at the University of Maastricht last month following her appointment as Honorary Professor and Chair of Development Economics in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. 

"But it is also crucial for developing countries to immediately invest in tertiary education and research to enable them identify opportunities for entry into new productive activities and provide the base for a more holistic, systems-oriented approach to policymaking."

The inaugural address gave Mytelka an opportunity to launch the ideas behind a major new INTECH research project – Catching Up in New Wave Technologies – that she is coordinating. It will explore the strategies adopted by selected developing countries in information and communication technologies, biotechnology and fuel cell technology. The countries being studied are China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Cuba, Brazil, Costa Rica, South Africa, Egypt and Ghana.

Download Lynn Mytelka's paper, New Wave Technologies: their Emergence, Diffusion and Impact (MS Word-350KB)

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