Powering Peace
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.
The Dickey Center collaborates with the Stimson Center and Energy Peace Partners to support the United Nations and its partners accelerate the transition to a renewable energy future in the field while introducing transformative renewable energy capacity into the crisis-affected communities the UN.
The Dickey Center’s Powering Peace initiative is also partnering with the Thayer School of Engineering on a project to develop a decision-making framework for stakeholders working to decarbonize United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions in fragile states. The project is additionally supported by the Irving Institute for Energy and Society.
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.
Powering Peace: Advancing Renewable Energy in Fragile Settings
In March 2026, a Dartmouth delegation joined renewable energy developers, investors, researchers, peacebuilding practitioners, and policymakers in Nairobi, Kenya, for Powering Peace: Charting a Future for Peace and Renewable Energy, a workshop organized by the Stanley Center for Peace and Security with support from the Dickey Center, Energy Peace Partners, and the Stimson Center. The Dartmouth team included Dickey Center Director Victoria Holt, Great Issues Fellow Ale Carrasco Alayo, Thayer Professors Vikrant Vaze and Steven Peterson, Ph.D. student Lilly Yang, MS student Ryan Proulx, and finance expert Eric Stambler ’88.
The workshop explored how renewable energy systems can support peacebuilding, resilience, and economic development in fragile and conflict-affected settings across Africa. Dartmouth contributed to the agenda by sharing research on hybrid renewable energy systems for UN peacekeeping compounds and surrounding communities, highlighting how solar power, battery storage, and limited diesel backup can reduce risk, improve reliability, and expand local energy access.
A central insight from the gathering was that energy access in fragile settings should be understood not only as infrastructure development, but also as a peace and security intervention. In regions affected by conflict, displacement, and limited public services, renewable energy can help reduce vulnerabilities, strengthen community support systems, and create new opportunities for stability and economic participation. Participants emphasized the importance of community ownership, local legitimacy, and stronger evidence linking renewable energy access to peace outcomes.
Building on these conversations, Dartmouth is exploring next steps that include developing a living knowledge platform, expanding student-to-practice opportunities, strengthening field partnerships, and positioning the Powering Peace initiative as a model for applied research, policy translation, and systems change. Through this work, the Dickey Center continues to advance interdisciplinary approaches to climate, security, and development challenges in some of the world’s most fragile settings.
Kenya, March 2026
(Photos: Rich Allela)
Renewable Energy and Peace in the Central African Republic
An Opportunity for The United Nations to Lead By Example
Published in March 2025. Exploring the role of electrification and renewable energy in supporting peace in CAR – with the help of UN peacekeeping
A Positive Legacy?
UN Peace Operations and Renewable Energy
Published in the Winter 2024 Ethics & International Affairs, Victoria K. Holt’s article, A Positive Legacy? UN Peace Operations and Renewable Energy, explores how UN peace operations can improve their effectiveness and create a positive, lasting legacy by shifting to renewable energy.
The article discusses the ethical case for this transition and how it could lead to increased security, stronger community ties, and greater energy access for host nations. A truly innovative approach to peacebuilding.
Peacekeeping and Clean Energy
Can Climate and Development Goals Align in Fragile States?
Authored by Victoria K. Holt, Director of the Dickey Center, and her research assistant, Anaïse Boucher-Browning, the 2024 report examines how UN peacekeeping operations can transition to renewable energy sources while supporting broader climate and development goals in conflict-affected countries.
Powering Peace Workshop
In May 2023, The Dickey Center hosted a workshop at Dartmouth, convening some of the world’s foremost experts in the field. The workshop took a multi-disciplinary look at how to accelerate the transition of UN peacekeeping missions to renewable energy. Drawing on the knowledge of UN leaders, energy and entrepreneurial experts, diplomatic and policy leaders, and the financial sectors, we focused on moving from good intentions to practical plans to meet the UN’s climate change goals, as well as the aims of host nations, UN missions, and the needs of the populations they serve.
The Powering Peace Team
Victoria K. Holt
Steven Peterson
Ryan Proulx
Vikrant Vaze
Lilly Yang
News
A Positive Legacy? UN Peace Operations and Renewable Energy
(Photo by Gregorio Cunha/UNMISS) Victoria K. Holt, Director of the Dickey Center, has published an article in Ethics & International Affairs titled "A Positive Legacy? UN Peace Operations and Renewable Energy." In it, she explores how UN peace operations can...
Leading Thoughts: Where Innovation Happens
Vikrant Vaze, the Stata Family Career Development Associate Professor of Engineering, applies his operations research techniques to logistics challenges—from improving travelers' experiences to decarbonizing UN peacekeeping missions. He spoke to Thayer He spoke to...
Dartmouth Engineering Team to Help Decarbonize UN Peacekeeping Missions
Vikrant Vaze, Stata Family Career Development Associate Professor of Engineering, and Steven Peterson, Senior Engineering Lecturer, will work with Dartmouth's Dickey Center for International Understanding and Irving Institute for Energy and Society to develop a decision-making framework to help decarbonize United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions in fragile states.