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SHIFTING POWER Transitioning to Renewable Energy in United Nations Peace Operations
In his closing remarks at the 2019 United Nations (UN) Climate Action Summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres committed the UN Secretariat to slashing its carbon emissions and dramatically increasing its use of renewable energy to 80% by 2030. This is an important step forward for the UN to lead by example and to transform its operations. While the UN as an organization has championed efforts to tackle climate change for decades, these are new, concrete goals set for reducing its emissions and scaling up its renewable-energy usage by a clear date.
The activities of the Secretariat constitute approximately 60% of the UN System’s greenhouse gas emissions, with the largest share coming from UN-led peace operations. Today those operations include 13 peacekeeping and 26 special political missions/presences, which deploy to prevent conflict, protect civilians, facilitate peace processes, and support peacebuilding activities. Thus, to meet its ambitious carbon-reduction and renewable energy targets, the UN will need to transform its approach to sourcing and generating power, and rapidly move away from its current heavy reliance on diesel generators in field missions. No other multinational organization has the same international reach and scale to respond to conflicts and crises. As such, the UN is always leading efforts to strengthen its peacekeeping missions around the world. Addressing the role of energy can also help missions better deliver on their mandates.
This report examines how UN peace operations can implement their respective mandates with more diversified energy sources, particularly renewable energy.
As seen in the field, missions may be able to improve efficiency, save money, reduce pollution, enhance security, kick-start local access to energy or investment, and reduce corruption — while meeting their mandates. The report also considers how the energy-related policies of UN operations deployed in fragile states can concurrently support international and host-country objectives to reduce global carbon emissions and achieve universal access to electricity. At the current pace, these ambitions could take decades to realize in fragile states. The report offers findings from peace operations and how they could accelerate beneficial shifts to diversified energy options and meet the Secretary-General’s goals for increasing the use of renewable energy.
This report also focuses on UN leadership, and looks at the broad vision across the UN System to address modernization and efficiency in field operations, as well as to reduce consumption, use more renewable energy, increase access to energy, support carbon neutrality, consider the environmental footprint, and reduce emissions to address climate change. The report then considers how current UN policies translate that vision into mission policy, design, and practice. Next, this report reflects on lessons from UN peace operations regarding their efforts to adopt more efficient practices and renewable-energy use, and the relationship to policy goals. The research includes cases based on field research (the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon, and South Sudan), and desk research (Central African Republic, Darfur, Kosovo, Mali, and Somalia) to follow that chain from theory to practice, and to highlight examples from the field that demonstrate innovation.
Read the report here. Register here for the report launch event.
Photocredit: United Nations Photos/Flickr