Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, partners, friends – good morning and welcome.

I’m pleased to open this important discussion on a topic at the heart of our shared mission: how renewable energy can drive climate action, recovery and peacebuilding in conflict-prone places.

Climate change is not only an environmental challenge – it is a risk multiplier. It disrupts food and water supplies, intensifies competition over scarce resources, and destroys livelihoods. These pressures, in turn, fuel displacement and conflict. 

Conflict then deepens the crisis. It damages energy infrastructure and drives communities into energy poverty. Today, 685 million people live without electricity – most in regions already vulnerable to conflict. 

Electricity isn’t a luxury: it’s a lifeline. It powers health facilities and schools, pumps clean water, connects communities, and provides lights at night that help keep women and girls safe.

My first message is this: energy is vital for relief, recovery and peace. 

• In the short-term, it saves lives and restores dignity.
• In the medium-term, energy powers rebuilding and enables markets to reopen.
• In the long-term, it underpins sustainable development and stability.

Energy also builds peace. Visible, fair and conflict-sensitive service delivery – including energy - can rebuild state legitimacy, ease resource tensions and create shared economic incentives. And when communities are a part of managing energy, it fosters social cohesion.

Renewable energy offers decentralized, resilient and low-cost solutions. Take solar panels: they not only provide power for households, but – when managed inclusively and supported by the community – can also reduce competition over scarce resources and help ease tensions.

UNDP is one of the largest implementers of renewable energy projects in crisis and post-crisis contexts. Through our Climate, Peace and Security portfolio, we support over 50 countries and regions to manage climate risks, reduce instability, and strengthen resilience – from the Sahel, to the Pacific, Central Asia and Haiti.

• In Yemen, we helped install solar systems in hospitals to ensure uninterrupted maternal care, safe vaccine storage, and life-saving surgeries – in a country where fuel imports are scarce and costly.
• In Somalia, decentralized solar-water systems are helping communities recovering from drought and conflict, while reducing dependence on diesel.
• In Ukraine, we helped deploy renewable energy to public utilities and hospitals, ensuring the continued operating despite war. When I visited Ukraine, I saw how energy meant survival, dignity and hope. At a heat and power station outside Kyiv, engineers worked tirelessly – under air raids – to bring electricity and heat to fellow citizens.

Ladies and gentlemen, my second message is this: renewable energy is not only a better choice in fragile contexts – often it is the only choice.

Many fragile and conflict-affected countries enjoy excellent solar, wind, hydro or geothermal energy potential. 

Decentralized renewables can form the backbone of new energy architecture, powering services, creating jobs and enabling countries to leapfrog diesel dependence. 

Yet, despite progress, renewable energy remains marginal, fragmented and underfinanced. Too many projects remain pilots. Risk-averse financing, structural barriers to private investment, and a lack of long-term investment hold back opportunities to scale. 

We face additional challenges as many minerals essential for the critical green transition lie in conflict-affected and ecologically fragile environments. 

The pilots exist. The partnerships exist. Now we must scale both to ensure enduring clean energy, and peace.

My third key message is this: we need energy solutions that deliver both climate action and peace.

This requires political will, de-risking through blended finance, and strong coalitions to ensure stability and harness new energy opportunities.

With the expertise in this room, we can turn renewable potential in conflict-hit countries into reality. We can scale strategies that deliver energy, peace, and resilience. And we can forge the partnerships to make this happen, guided by your knowledge and the leadership of countries most affected.

UNDP is committed to working with all of you to unlock renewable energy for sustainable development and peace. 

Thank you all for joining us during Climate Week at UNDP. And thanks also to the Environmental Law Institute and the European Institute of Peace for co-convening today.

It’s now my honor to hand over to His Excellency Elshad Iskandarov, Ambassador and Senior Advisor to COP29 Presidency, Republic of Azerbaijan.

Thank you.