‘Environmental impact of peacekeeping alarming’
By Isaac AIDOO, Accra
The environmental impact of peacekeeping operations across the globe is alarming and risks “deepening the conflicts we are hoping to contain,” United States Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Madam Linda Thomas-Greenfield has warned.
She revealed that “today, peacekeeping is responsible for 92 % of the United Nations carbon footprint and by continuing down this path, we risk exacerbating the conflicts that we hope to contain.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield maintained that preserving peace and protecting the planet go hand in hand, adding that “climate change exacerbates armed conflict, and that war wreaks havoc on the environment.”
She advocated for a transition from fossil fuels to more renewable energy resources, arguing that, it will reduce one of the biggest risks to peacekeepers in the high-threat missions that they work in: delivering fuel along dangerous routes.
“By adopting new practices to switch to clean energy, peacekeepers can reduce strain on the fragile countries in which they operate and strengthen relationships with local communities. And improving environmental management can even help deliver peace dividends to those very communities, by leaving behind infrastructure to support a greener future,” the US Envoy to the UN stated.
“In other words, cleaner and greener missions can help protect peacekeepers and can help promote peace around the world,” she added.
US committed to clean energy use
The United States is committed to this work, including through a trilateral solar power project with Nepal and the United Nations, which will replace traditional diesel generations with cleaner alternatives. We are proud to support this initiative.
Partnerships critical
Madam Thomas-Greenfield admitted that the US could not work alone and called for the creation of new partnerships and the strengthen existing ones.
She stressed the need to work together to prioritize clean energy, better manage waste and wastewater, or build greener infrastructure.
“Conflict and environmental exploitation are inextricably linked. But if there’s hope, it’s that the opposite is also true: that peacekeeping and preservation are mutually reinforcing. Together, we can create both a peace and a planet that are sustainable in the same sense of the word,” she concluded.
