UNITED NATIONS
The transition to renewable energy in United Nations peacekeeping missions helps ensure the safety and security of uniformed personnel serving in the field, U.N. officials say.
Speaking at the 2023 U.N. Peacekeeping Ministerial conference in Accra, Ghana, Under-Secretary-General Atul Khare said the shift to green energy in the field “is not just about environmental footprint,” as it helps to protect peacekeepers by reducing the need to transport fuel on dangerous roads. With proper energy management, operational resilience to withstand fuel shortages also is increased, meaning that missions can run core infrastructure even when fuel supplies cannot be delivered.
Delegates from more than 85 countries attended the conference, where discussions focused on environmental management at peacekeeping operations.
Khare said that progress has included “a major jump” in the proportion of waste treated through recycling, composting and incineration, which has risen from 19% to 65%. Additionally, fuel use per capita, per day in electricity generation has decreased from 4.1 liters to 3.7 liters.
“This may sound modest as a per capita figure, but in real terms this represents a reduction of 15 million liters of diesel per year, or around 40,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.
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