For instance, where renewable energy is for export and improvements in local energy security do not materialise, appropriate and commensurate compensation packages to local communities whose resources are being extracted need to be ensured. Care needs to be taken that compensation for accessing natural resources for energy production is not perceived to be inadequate to restore local livelihoods or to be inequitable between different groups. New jobs through renewable energy production may help to partly offset adverse impacts.

The G7 pledge towards a low carbon energy system is important to ensure a sustainable low carbon future and to deal with climate change. The role of renewable energy in achieving this sustainable low carbon future is unequivocal.

But renewable energy is not just an environmental and climate change issue. It has implications for conflict and peace.

For renewable energy to truly be effective while relying on resources, including those available in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, investment should be conflict-sensitive. Conflict-sensitivity of renewable energy would mean, at the minimum, doing no harm. It would require guarding against increasing grievances and inequalities among groups, and displacing poor and marginalised communities from land essential to their livelihoods.