Supporting Renewable Energy in Fragile States

Increasing Energy Access and Reducing Climate Change with UN Peacekeeping Operations.

UN peacekeeping missions are the tangible global response to conflict. These vast, ongoing operations also represent a unique opportunity to advance climate, development, and peacebuilding goals in some of the most fragile, underdeveloped and least electrified countries in the world.

What would it take for the United Nations, development donors, private investors, and entrepreneurs to make the transition to renewable energy a reality?

THE BIG QUESTION

What would it take for the United Nations, development donors, private investors, and entrepreneurs to make the transition to renewable energy a reality? The UN is committed to renewable energy and looking to change how it operates. Currently, UN peacekeeping missions rely primarily on generators burning fossil fuel that must be shipped in at great cost and significant risk.

Transitioning these outsized UN carbon footprints to renewable sources of energy provides a unique entry point to implement new projects that deliver climate change solutions where they are most needed. It offers the prospect of a win-win: the UN gets closer to fulfilling its pledge of 80 percent renewably-sourced energy by 2030, improves mission security, and lowers the cost of peacekeeping operations. At the same time, fragile host nations are provided with a sustainable energy infrastructure.

However, despite the good intentions and tremendous potential, progress has been slow. At present, only a fraction of funding to mitigate climate change goes to fragile states. The UN would like to partner with the private sector to catalyze renewable energy projects, but it lacks the systems and experience to do so at scale.