Electrical grid health key tool to decarbonise cities – WEF

The World Economic Forum (WEF), in partnership with four global organisations, is launching the Toolbox of Solutions to drive urban decarbonisation. Consisting of over 300 case studies, the platform emphasises electrical grid health as a core component for cities to meet net zero.

Announced during COP27, the Toolbox of Solutions was launched by WEF, knowledge partner Accenture, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), the Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

The Toolbox contains case studies drawn from more than 150 cities. It enables its users to access solutions through a search tailored to each city’s strategic planning priorities as well as specific attributes, including electricity grid health, population density and income level.

The toolbox has been designed to work in tandem with the City Sprint process – a structured workshop series that convenes local business and city leaders to identify new pathways and partnerships. The objective of City Sprint is to foster public-private collaboration by creating a coalition of local stakeholders that can implement projects in each city after the City Sprint workshops have concluded.

Urbanisation on the rise

By 2050, it is estimated that 68% of people will live in cities, resulting in greater energy consumption and infrastructure demand, and, as a result, increasing carbon emissions.

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Although most of the solutions to reduce global carbon emissions exist, they are not being adopted and scaled rapidly enough.

“For urban ecosystems, the solutions and innovations needed to reduce emissions already exist. We know that to shift the climate change trajectory, urban ecosystems and the economy must become far more efficient, electric and circular. The toolbox contains inspiration from around the world to reduce emissions while also boosting economic development, creating jobs and improving air quality,” said Kristen Panerali, head of energy, materials and infrastructure programme, clean power, electrification and net-zero carbon cities, World Economic Forum.

Although announced during COP27, the WEF and its delivery partners have completed over 10 City Sprints in the past year and plan to conduct more with new cities in 2023.

“Climate change and its impacts are not bound by jurisdictions and require a collaborative approach. Sharing of responsibilities by players across the spectrum – at various scales of planning and implementation is a key to the path of net zero,” added Hitesh Vaidya, director, National Institute of Urban Affairs.

“NIUA through their collaboration with the Forum is sharing knowledge via the Toolbox of Solutions and leading their own series of City Sprints in India with a focus on mainstreaming climate actions in the local development agenda to enable Indian cities towards a sustainable and resilient future as part of the Sustainable Cities India Program.”