Peace & Stability Journal Volume 5, Issue 3 | Page 19

FIL, UNMIT, MINUSTAH, and MONUSCO.”9 This indi cates much more work to be done to meet the aims of increasing their use. The difference in overall sustainability and public health between the use of fossil fuels and SETM in reconstruction was also noted in the 2005 UNEP Assessment of the Environment in Iraq; wherein, it was discovered the use of fossil fuels during conflict and disaster reconstruction leads to exacerbated environmental problems that exponentially delay recovery, prolong development, and exacerbate fossil fuel production related health problems.10 Additionally, an energy specialist for the UN Office of Field Support working with the UNEP noted in an email interview, “it [solar added to a traditional fossil fuel burning generator set] took five years to be embraced by the technical personnel of the UN DPKO Field Missions.”11 Five years is a very long time and not an operational timeframe to realize the overall paradigm change which might otherwise take place. Moreover, after an author 2013 survey of all active UN PKO, only one response related to SETM was discovered. These results also clearly show there are significant opportunities to increase the use of SETM, replacing traditional energy resources. Fossil fuel competition in LDCs is burgeoning and resulting in significant economic activity; however, those activities are not without associated conflicts, which evolve into further conflicts amongst their neighbors and regions. It is with a pervasive sense of responsibility, the U.S. and LDCs respond to LDCs fossil fuel related conflicts through the UN DPKO. University of California, Los Angeles Professor Michael Ross captures and lists a "who’s who" of fossil fuel conflict ridden nations across the globe, …oil-producing states make up a growing fraction of the world's conflict-ridden countries. They now host about a third of the world's civil wars, both large and small, up from one-fifth in 1992.” He further states, “Most of the new energy-rich states are in Africa (Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Mauritania, Namibia, and São Tomé and Príncipe), the Caspian basin (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan), or Southeast Asia (Cambodia, East Timor, Myanmar, and Vietnam).12 Although LDCs with readily accessible short supply fossil fuels may sell them in their plight for quick economic development to other LDCs with outdated infrastructures, paradoxically, 17