Aid agencies urged to switch to clean energy and save up to $500m
Humanitarian agencies spent about 5% of their funds on diesel in 2018 and could save by using cleaner energy sources
Aid agencies could save more than $500m by choosing clean energy over fossil fuels in war zones and disaster areas, global think-tank Chatham House said in a report on Monday. Humanitarian agencies spent about 5% of their funds — or about $1.2bn — on diesel in 2017, and could save $517m each year by using cleaner energy sources such as solar power, it said. “Humanitarians are operating in tough environments where saving lives come first,” said co-author Owen Grafham from the Moving Energy Initiative (MEI), a partnership managed by London-based Chatham House. “Energy is not given much thought — diesel is the go-to fuel because it’s what agencies are used to and it’s quick to deploy,” he said in a statement. Carbon-emitting fossil fuels can be used as a weapon, hijacked by militants or sold on the black market and sometimes have to be flown vast distances to reach off-grid relief camps. That creates costs humanitarian groups can ill afford, with wars, persecution and other violence ha...
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