Page 87 - Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change

5. Key observations and considerations

A recurring observation in the cases presented above has been that buy-in from, and investment by,
governments are critical to ensuring the progress and spread of frontier technologies. Also critical
for ensuring relevance to city needs is a close working relationship between the public and private
or business sectors, along with engagement of academia and citizen stakeholders. Governments can
help ensure cooperation and spur innovation within private industry through economic and legislative
incentives for research and development of frontier technologies.

The rapid furtherance of frontier technologies such as AI at the business level can be seen in the
results of a 2017 Gartner survey, which showed that 59 per cent of organizations polled were actively
gathering information to build their AI strategies, while over 40 per cent had already made progress
in piloting or adopting AI solutions. Therefore, the more prevalent the usage of these technologies
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becomes, the more scalable and cross-sector applicable they will be.
For frontier technologies to be successful in combatting climate change, it is essential that their
carbon footprint be taken into consideration and that they are not used gratuitously despite their
popularity, but as part of well-planned, integrative strategies that would see these technologies bring
actual concrete results for both city operators and the city populations.
This is reflected in a new handbook, ‘The Future of US Cities: How Cities are Innovating with Intention
to Achieve Impact’, which offers guidance on how technology can be deployed to benefit the whole of
communities, especially vulnerable communities, and how to prevent aimless innovation. According
to the Centre for Public Impact North America, ‘When cities innovate with intention, they do so in a
way that emphasizes legitimacy, equity, and agility.’ The Aspen Institute’s Centre for Urban Innovation
adds: ‘Cities are epicentres of innovation, opportunity, and delight. Especially in an age of smart cities,
city leaders will need to continue innovating with an intentional focus on equity to ensure that all city
residents are able to reap the benefits of new tools and technologies.’ 252
Dissimilar to the idea of aimless innovation is the ‘leap-frogging’ that some cities or countries may
find themselves doing out of necessity. Leapfrogging has been described as ‘the notion that areas
which have poorly developed technology or economic bases can move themselves forward rapidly
through the adoption of modern systems without going through intermediary steps.’ This has been
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seen in many African countries, where growing energy demand and slow response of governments in
attracting or investing in traditional energy source infrastructure has seen Ethiopia, for example, move
directly to hydropower to meet its future energy needs. Ethiopia is building the Grand Renaissance
Dam on the Blue Nile River. Once completed, the dam would generate 6 000 MW of electricity, which
is more than four times Ethiopia’s capacity otherwise. Although hydropower, like many other clean
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energy technologies is not a new technology, it could be a significant disruptor within Ethiopia’s energy
context, as well that of other countries nearby, and may help the country leapfrog over coal as a major
traditional energy source, with potential implications for water supply as well.
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Some cities or countries may find themselves leapfrogging even when they have limited capacities
to access these technologies. This can be seen in the case of ‘mini-grids’, i.e. the local distribution
networks of electrical generation systems that produce less than 10 MW, which are powered by
renewable sources (such as solar power and biofuels) and are becoming increasingly popular in rural
areas. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts: ‘140 million people in rural areas will gain
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access to electricity via mini-grids by 2040.’ 258
Direct leapfrogging can have certain limitations, however, especially in the energy sector, which
typically requires a certain amount of infrastructure investment, modernization of public utilities,
development of regulations and institution of finance mechanisms. The development of technical
literacy and skills through education is also necessary to ensure the required level of adoption that
would make frontier technologies successful for the benefit of all, not just for some.

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