You'll be learning how to "keep up" by investigating the latest engineering solutions (not policy solutions) to sustainability problems identified by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:
http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
These problems include tackling poverty, improving education, promoting gender equality, supplying people with clean water, supplying people with clean energy, etc.
If your topic is a single word or simple phrase, it's probably too broad, like these topics:
When topics are too broad like this, your writing ends up turning into a long definition. Instead, topics should investigate or analyze something.
Sometimes it's hard to get from a broad topic to a research question that investigates something. To get started, think about your topic in these terms:
Your topic doesn't need to be stated as a question. It could be a statement or hypothesis to find evidence for - or against.
It's possible to choose a topic that's so narrow, obscure, or weird that NO information sources exist on it - or, at least no articles. For example:
That example demonstrates another problem: the answer would simply be a percentage, and you wouldn't be able to stretch that into an essay.
You may need to do a preliminary search on your topic to make sure you can actually find articles about it. As long as you start the assignment early enough, you should be able to find a topic and articles no problem!