New financial mechanisms, particularly loan systems, are needed to bring about the rapid dissemination of cleaner and more efficient production techniques. Greater efforts have to be made to expose industrialists, especially in developing countries and countries with economies in transition, to the potential advantages of investing in cleaner and more efficient production techniques, especially to the 'win-win' outcomes that are possible in the medium and longer term. Small levies on polluting emissions can be used to shift market conditions in favour of cleaner technology in the energy and other sectors.
This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 suggests that governments of developed countries might provide a range of incentives to encourage industry to transfer environmentally sound technology and know-how on clean technology and low-waste production to developing countries on preferential and non-commercial terms, thus bringing about changes to sustain innovation.