Opinion: How renewables fight corruption in conflict-affected states

Iman Hadi is a persuasive woman who changed Faleha Mohammad’s life. In 2019, Iman was a 36-year-old who was displaced by the fighting in Yemen and settled in Abs, a town midway between Sanaa and the Saudi Arabia border. Faleha was living with her parents in a small hut, living off a brother’s meager wages selling water. The only source of electricity was from a private generator owner who had a local monopoly and charged extortionate prices. Iman persuaded the United Nations Development Programme to help her establish and operate a small solar plant with an all-female crew. Once the plant was built, she encouraged Faleha to bring electricity into her house and buy a sewing machine. With a steady supply of electricity, Faleha went into the women’s clothing business. Now, Faleha’s family is building a brick house, a sign of permanence and security, and Iman leads a team of 10 women who provide cheaper and cleaner power to their community. International donors should advance renewable technologies in conflict-affected environments to prevent the entrenchment of vested interests that profit from electricity crises. The benefits of solar energy in fragile environments are wide-ranging. As well as advancing climate goals, renewables are more resilient to conflicts, accelerate local economic development, and plant the seeds of better governance. However, donors’ window to act is short-lived. Iraq demonstrates the danger of waiting too long. Although international groups have spent more than $5 billion on the reconstruction of Iraq’s power sector since 2003, Iraq’s electricity crisis worsens year on year. Today, some Iraqis only receive state power half the time. This crisis has become profitable for various groups, from officials who get kickbacks from major infrastructure projects to price-gouging private generator owners who are allied with political parties and militias. These corrupt groups work against efforts to reform energy subsidies to deter competition in the sector and protect their local monopolies. They have various tools to frustrate Iraq’s transition to renewable energy, from sabotage of state electricity infrastructure to legislative and bureaucratic obstructionism. These tactics likely drove one of the largest international investors in renewables out of Iraq last month. However, conflict-affected states elsewhere in the Middle East show that there is a window to advance sustainable energy during crises. In Yemen, 75% of households with access to electricity now use solar home systems as their primary source of power. And Lebanon’s installed rooftop solar capacity is estimated to have increased by more than sevenfold since the onset of its economic collapse in 2019. While these renewable systems have spread chaotically in the absence of state regulation, they demonstrate the possibility of providing cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable electricity in even the most challenging contexts. Renewables in conflict-affected states Renewable technologies have several benefits in conflict-affected environments. In contrast to major power stations, distributed systems of renewable electricity include smaller scale, decentralized infrastructure and generate power closer to where it is consumed. Because these systems are smaller, it is easier to implement them in unstable and crisis-affected states. Iman Hadi’s project is less than 20 miles from the front lines in Yemen. These systems are also more resilient to instability as they limit single points of failure. The destruction of major power stations can cause outages for millions of people and cost billions to repair — as happened in Iraq in 2014 when Islamic State militants destroyed the Baiji power station months after a part of it went online, and whose reconstruction has been estimated at $1.3 billion. The consequences of the destruction of a small renewable system is more limited. Installing these systems earlier in a conflict cycle also means they can stem humanitarian crises, power recovery, and accelerate local economic development even while instability endures. In the longer term, distributed renewable systems can limit many of the sources of corruption in the electricity sector. For instance, they reduce reliance on fuel imports for electricity generation, which is a key area of corruption. Last month, the U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned two Lebanese brothers for their involvement in a multimillion-dollar scheme to import tainted fuel for Lebanon’s state electricity utility. The Treasury Department accused the brothers of enriching “themselves at the expense of their fellow citizens.” Distributed systems of electricity generation also reduce aspiring monopolists’ ability to establish their grip over the sector. Because the contracts are smaller, they are less lucrative, and any kickbacks would necessarily be more minor. Distributed ownership also spurs competition in the market between different groups, who can pursue different models of electricity generation for their constituents and consumers. This competition is playing out in Lebanon, where dozens of communities have experimented by integrating solar panels into their own systems of electricity provision. The international development community should not merely see renewable technologies as a tool to advance climate goals, but also as a means of fighting corruption in fragile and conflict-affected states. However, they must support these systems earlier than they are used to investing in the electricity sector. As Iraq’s inability to capitalize on its solar potential demonstrates, donors must act before corrupt groups develop powerful tools to protect their profits. The livelihoods of families like Iman’s and Faleha’s are in the balance.