I would like to see the world embrace sustainable energy. There should be a shift to technologies that promote sustainable energy including renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal energy, bioenergy, tidal power and also technologies designed to improve energy efficiency.

I would like cities, especially, to go green. The transition to renewables should cut across the entire urban energy landscape, from buildings, to transport, to industry and power. In the area of transport, ethanol and hydrogen can be used in place of fossil fuels. Electrified public transportation systems (like trains) should become more widespread. Most of a city?s energy use takes place in its residential, commercial, and public buildings – through heating, cooling, and the powering of appliances. Technologies such as solar thermal collectors, solar PV panels, biomass boilers, and modern cook-stoves using bioenergy need to become more commonplace.

Renewable energy applications should be used to generate heat or cold supplied to buildings through district energy networks, and renewable power, which can be used for cooking, lighting and appliances, and heating or cooling. A lot of the waste produced in cities can be recycled. One typical example is biogas, which is a by-product of the food processing industry. It has many uses, of which the most common is the cogeneration of power and heat. Biogas can also be upgraded to bio-methane and injected to the natural gas grid, or used as a transport fuel. Excess and waste heat from industry (including heat recovery from wastewater plants) can be used to generate electricity in turbines, or reused for space heating through district energy networks. Waste such as paper, plastic and glass can be sort and sent to recycling plants for processing.

More research needs to be conducted on geothermal energy stored in the earth?s core for its extraction. I believe that the world needs to take this step towards renewable cities in order to curb the destructive trend of environmental degradation.

I believe that civil society groups, professional bodies, organized private sector, and the mass- public should be given the opportunity to present their proposals for policy making and implementation, thereby giving everyone equal opportunity to present innovative ideas to the government for consideration. As the saying goes, ideas rule the world. There should be equal chance of research funding and grants for game-changing ideas. Governmental policies issuing grants will go a long way in making this possible.

City governments are uniquely positioned to integrate renewable applications across their various functions. Cities can also influence how their citizens, local businesses and other organizations behave, through community engagement, stakeholder consultations and dialogue facilitation. Governments can formulate policies for industries to channel by-products for reuse and recycling.

Government can formulate policies to fund programs that will educate the populace on the need for green living. This will increase carpooling and bike-riding. They play a pivotal role in knowledge dissemination through demonstration projects, feasibility studies, media campaigns, and education programmes.

National governments in the developing world have a key role in providing the supporting framework for cities to develop their own capacity. Policies can provide funding for development of recycling plants geothermal mining facilities etc.

The integration of cities in national and global energy agendas can increase the level of ambition and catalyse action both at the local and at the global level. This includes global policies such as the Paris Agreement on greenhouse gases emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance.

Overall, good governance is an essential enabling factor. It can unlock financial support, capacity building and technical support, data availability, and new mandates that can accelerate the transition to a sustainable energy future.