Can clever innovation help get us out of the climate mess we've made for ourselves?

Land-starved Singapore is betting on floating solar farms and vertical photovoltaic panels to boost clean energy and cut emissions - a model that might work for other densely populated cities as well.

"Singapore needs to think out of the box and become more creative than other countries," an executive at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore told our correspondent Rina Chandran.

In Africa, "frugal" innovation - from smartphone apps to help farmers cope with climate change or track deforestation, to ideas for air conditioners without energy-sucking condensers - may be a big part of what's needed to adapt to climate stresses and add millions more jobs, African experts said.

Healthcare systems around the world - struggling under the burden of COVID-19 - are also innovating to reduce their emissions, from using more remote consultations to cut patient travel to road-testing zero-emissions ambulances.

But not all promising ideas go according to plan.

In Lebanon, an electric vehicle company this year aims to launch its first homegrown electric car, the Rise. But in a country grappling with electric power cuts and an economic crash - with just 62 new cars sold in the first two months of 2021 - will a $30,000 car win buyers, asks our correspondent Timour Azhari.

Indonesia's islands - some of them far from grid power lines - have long relied on diesel and other polluting fuels for heat and light. An effort to power communities instead with biomass plants run on locally grown bamboo could be a smart solution - but early projects have run into teething problems.

Efforts to carry out international negotiations remotely during the coronavirus pandemic also are facing a rocky ride, as delegates from internet-poor parts of the world struggle with a problem we've all faced: dropped connections.

U.N. climate officials have said mid-year negotiations - ahead of COP26 in Glasgow in November - will go ahead virtually, but no formal decisions will be made because of worries about how effectively some delegates will be able to participate.

Looking for an inspiring read? Check out this profile of India's solar pioneer Santipada Gon Chaudhuri.

See you next week!

Laurie

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