Energy Peace Partners has been selected among a small group of innovative seed projects for the Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge.
The innovation challenge finalists were announced on 26 September during the Annual Concordia Summit alongside the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. The event was moderated by Rahul Chandran of the Global Alliance for Humanitarian Innovation with special guests Mark Green, Administrator of USAID and Penny Mordaunt, U.K. Secretary of State for International Development. The official announcement was made by USAID's Mark Green.
Energy Peace Partners will receive seed funding to support the development of the Peace Renewable Energy Credit (PREC); a market-oriented financing solution for unlocking new renewable energy investment in fragile states. Energy Peace Partners was one of 23 finalists selected from a pool of 615 applications from 86 countries.
“The Peace Renewable Energy Credit supports new renewable energy projects in energy poor, climate- and conflict- vulnerable countries, which lack many of the economic incentives that have supported renewable energy projects elsewhere,” said Energy Peace Partners President Dave Mozersky. “Renewable Energy Credit (REC) markets have been instrumental in driving clean energy growth in developed markets. PRECs will extend these mature environmental attribute markets to crisis contexts and capture the environmental and social benefits of new renewable energy projects. Our aim is to create financial incentives that will stimulate renewable energy investment in places at risk of being left behind.” PRECs will enable public and private sector actors to collaborate on introducing clean energy solutions that deliver tangible benefits to communities affected by conflict. This will contribute to achieving environmental, social and peacebuilding goals.
Energy Peace Partners has been working to create an enabling environment for renewable energy deployment in South Sudan, the newest and least electrified country in the world, and recently concluded the first solar training in South Sudan in partnership with the Renewable Energy Council of South Sudan.
“We have been building the architecture for transacting PRECs in South Sudan and beyond. The idea is to have a self-sustaining mechanism for financing renewable energy development with a measurable social impact that can be replicated in a dozen or more fragile settings,” said Mozersky. Energy Peace Partners is grateful to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the UK Department of International Development (DFID), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and Grand Challenges Canada for this opportunity to make the PREC a reality.
About Energy Peace Partners
Energy Peace Partners leverages economic and climate solutions to support peace in places affected by violent conflict. We believe that a paradigm shift toward climate-sensitive development can deliver enduring benefits to the planet’s most vulnerable populations. Our efforts create an enabling environment for introducing renewable energy that can serve as the building blocks for peace.
About the Humanitarian Grand Challenge
The Humanitarian Grand Challenge is a partnership of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the UK Department of International Development (DFID), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, with support from Grand Challenges Canada. The initiative supports groundbreaking solutions that engage the private sector to help the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach people affected by conflict.