There are more countries involved in conflict today than at any time since World War II. There is also a record 120 million displaced persons across the globe. While the wars in Ukraine and Gaza dominate the headlines, a growing number of countries face threats to stability from a wide range of challenges, including climate change, growing social divisions, weakening governance, and the rising cost of living.
This comes at a time when the rules of game are increasingly being challenged. Since the end of the Cold War, the overarching thesis for world peace has been anchored in economic integration and interdependence between countries. Yet this has started to fracture in recent years and increased significantly following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which has led to a concerted effort by European countries to decouple their energy usage from dependency on Russian oil and gas, and US-led sanctions on Russia and companies tied to the war effort. Growing competition between the US and China is also playing out in the realm of climate technology. For example, recent US legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act includes billions of dollars in economic incentives aimed at shifting production of renewable energy and electric vehicles back to the US. Separate US legislation aimed at combating forced labor in Chinese supply chains places restrictions on companies tied Uyghur forced labor, which includes a number of the world’s largest producers of solar equipment.
In this context, policymakers, business leaders, and civil society organizations around the globe feel overwhelmed by an increasingly daunting set of challenges. Amid growing concerns about the economic and environmental pressures straining both governments and communities, there is a need to pursue solutions that can help address as many of these different challenges as possible at once.
Renewable energy can offer a multi-pronged solution that can provide numerous benefits, especially in fragile countries: those most affected by conflict and climate risks, and with the lowest levels of electrification. In addition to the climate benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the impacts of climate change, renewable energy can expand energy access, create new economic opportunities, help ease tensions across communities, promote the decentralization of political and economic power, and as a result bolster overall community resilience. This is why a growing number of stakeholders are beginning to recognize the opportunity for renewable energy as a powerful tool in the conflict prevention and peace-building toolbox.
These insights became clearer during two events that Energy Peace Partners (EPP) recently attended in The Hague, which focused on the nexus of the environment and peacebuilding. The first was a workshop that explored the role of renewable energy to promote peace, organized by Clingendael Institute and Stanley Center for Peace and Security. The second was the bi-annual International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding (EnPax).
The events demonstrated a growing recognition of both the potential of renewable energy to support peace in fragile settings, and the need to urgently increase investment in practical, climate-friendly solutions like renewable energy, which can advance multiple peace and development goals. EPP’s work was highlighted as an example of operationalizing these concepts in the form of renewable energy projects that are advancing social, climate and peace goals in fragile states.
Five key insights emerged during discussions among workshop and conference participants for what it will take to scale the deployment of renewable energy for more people in more places around the world:
Attracting more financing: While renewables continue to grow at a rapid pace across much of the globe, little of that investment in reaching fragile states. Even so, the pace must accelerate at least three-fold to keep the 1.5°C climate goal possible. Financing remains a major barrier to more rapidly scale investments in renewables, particularly in fragile states and countries with limited public funds, and which struggle to attract foreign investment. A mosaic of private sector solutions can help expand renewables deployment and energy access. For example, the Peace Renewable Energy Credit (Peace REC) provides catalytic capital for new renewable mini-grids plus linked community projects in fragile countries through revenue from corporate clean energy procurement, which helps make these projects bankable.
Reframing the narrative: Storytelling matters and must improve in order to further mobilize decision makers to respond to and address climate change. Reframing renewable energy as a solution for climate security and resilience, economic development, social cohesion, and/or conflict mitigation may help generate more productive conversations with policy makers, and ultimately lead to better for local communities in fragile settings. Renewable energy can enhance resilience against the cocktail of risks that communities face. For example, distributed renewable energy systems can provide greater reliability following disruptive weather events, as has been the case for various island nations preparing for and responding to major storms. In conflict contexts, such as in Ukraine, renewable mini-grids can offer greater resilience for local communities compared to interconnected systems with highly exposed targets like transmission lines. This type of positive framing would also represent a welcome departure because it focuses on tangible actions decision makers can implement and achieve.
Addressing global challenges at the local scale: What is possible at a local level may not work—or can even get thwarted—at the national level. The modular, distributed nature of renewable energy systems, particularly solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, offers flexibility in its deployment that can meet the diverse needs of different communities. Community level mini-grids can provide decentralized energy solutions in contexts where a centrally-provided energy grid is not realistic in the near or medium term.
Integrating into peace-making: Renewable energy can provide peace dividends for post-conflict communities, yet it is rarely featured in peace agreements and transitional peace processes. This represents a new opportunity. By finding ways to integrate renewable energy into peace agreements and peace-building activities, communities can use this multi-pronged solution to improve their future prospects.
Renewable energy is investible: The renewable energy sector receives the majority of all climate finance flows around the world, and prices continue to drop. Many of the other climate impact related challenges facing fragile states – for example, related to water, land or agriculture – do not yet have easily investible solutions. Renewable energy stands apart as a proven and economically viable technology, able to attract both public and private sector investment.
EPP is pleased to see this growing recognition of the opportunity for renewable energy as a tool for peace. To learn more about EPP’s climate finance innovations and frontier research at the nexus of renewable energy and peace, contact EPP at info@energypeacepartners.com.