Electricity plays a pivotal role in the expansion and development of cities and is an integral part of urban life. Cities consume an estimated 78% of the world's electricity to power the most essential urban amenities from transportation to heating to waste and sanitation processing. As cities work to reduce emissions and fortify themselves against the impacts of climate change, they need to critically evaluate the energy systems on which they depend.

 

The third session of the Cities on the Frontline Speaker Series 2023, jointly organized by Resilient Cities Network and the World Bank, will focus on re-introducing the Urban Power – R-Cities' flagship energy resilience program - and serve as the official launch event of the four city profiles that were developed during the first phase of the program. R-Cities has been working with Cali, Cape Town, Lagos and Rio de Janeiro to conduct holistic reviews of the four cities’ power systems, looking at the governance and institutional landscape in each city, shocks and stresses that impact the power system and its interdependencies at the urban scale, the social and technical aspect of electricity access as well as the critical challenges to renewable energy transition and building resilience.

 

This session will feature Urban Poverty Alleviation Officer Thandeka Tshabalala from the City of Cape Town and David Beron from Cali to discuss their cities’ respective energy and resilience concerns. We will also be joined by Urban Power Programs Consultant, Eskedar Gessesse, to discuss the key learnings from R-Cities' engagement with the four program cities as well as the projects currently emerging from this work.