Modern sustainable neighbourhood in Almere , The Netherlands
human prosperity as they can move quickly to implement locally viable solutions . Cities have their own local contexts ( local infrastructure , culture , institutions and knowledge ) and can provide space to incubate new green technologies as socio-technical experiments that can be carried out for clean energy innovation via observing and analysing the interactions among technologies , users , infrastructure and institutions at the city scale . Such technology demonstrations can shape the frontline for larger green innovation through replication and upscaling .
Cities can also efficiently tackle climate change through city networks by sharing knowledge and encouraging participation in climate action . Unlike national Governments , which may have different interests that conflict , local Governments are relatively free from military , economic , diplomatic
and historical issues , making it easier to establish transnational city networks for collective climate action . The city network can more proactively respond to climate change by encouraging local Governments to submit ambitious but viable carbon reduction targets aligned with their national Governments ’ submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions ( INDC ) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ).
However , it is recognised that designing sustainable cities is a challenging task . Sustainable cities cannot be achieved by one particular organisation as it requires comprehensive and integrated knowledge . Having considered this , UNIDO seeks co-operation with other players such as private companies , Governments and research institutes to complement knowledge and promote unIdo ’ s comparative advantage :
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Clean energy innovation |
Economic empowerment |
Low-carbon industrialization |
Climate action |
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