Can the business of climate security drive peace in the Middle East?
EcoPeace Middle East aims to deliver stability to the region through private investment in climate security projects, but the organisation's directors believe impact investors are too risk-averse to support its work.
“At long last, we have peace in the Middle East,” announced a confident US president Donald Trump on 13 October 2025.
Tragically, for the people of the Middle East, that confidence was dramatically misplaced as war and conflict continues to destabilise the region and the world.
In contrast to the recent predominance of warfare, there are people and organisations who argue the route to peace in the Middle East isn’t more bombs and more destruction.
One is EcoPeace Middle East, a charity which has been advocating for an alternative to peace forcibly delivered through war since it was founded in 1994.
The Middle East is the most water-scarce region on the planet, a fundamental challenge to life which will only get worse as the impacts of the climate crisis escalate. That’s just one of the biggest climate problems the Middle East faces, which also include increasing levels of extreme heat and the related loss of productive farmland, leading to a reliance on imported food.
Of course, none of these challenges respects country borders, and all are exacerbated by war and conflict. EcoPeace Middle East’s ambition is to bring countries currently in conflict together to tackle these shared climate crisis impacts.
In EcoPeace Middle East’s vision, joint projects to deliver renewable energy, tackle water scarcity and build climate resilience would create economic and structural dependencies between countries in the region, incentivising stability and avoidance of conflict.
Crucially, EcoPeace Middle East wants these projects to be funded by private investment, not grants or aid, so the global economy also has skin in the game to maintain peace.
This vision is inspired by the history of the European Union (EU), which created the economic, diplomatic and structural dependencies that have led to an extended period of stability and peace in Western Europe. What is now the EU grew out of integrating Europe’s coal and steel industries into a single common market after the Second World War.
“Connecting people, economies, livelihoods tends to reduce tension, tends to force societies to draw compromises, because they now have many more shared interests,” says Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli co-founder and co-director of EcoPeace Middle East.
“What is the European experience after the Second World War? You're a continent that's also known thousands of years of horrific bloodshed, hundreds in these last centuries. The game changer of European stability was based on connectivity, was based on coal and steel.”
So, can EcoPeace Middle East’s plan to substitute German coal for Jordanian solar power and French steel for Israeli and Palestinian desalinated water lead to climate security and peace in the Middle East?
Bromberg argues the business of climate security is the best available solution: “Do we have a hard road? Absolutely, we do. Peace is always an uphill battle because of the levels of hate and animosity. But Europe is the example that you can reverse a tradition of hundreds of years of killing each other. No one would have thought that that was possible when the coal and steel arrangement was made. They would have thought that was as mad as [people think we are] at EcoPeace.”
EcoPeace Middle East's directors: Nada Majdalani (Palestine), Yana Abu Taleb (Jordan) and Gidon Bromberg (Israel)
EcoPeace Middle East's directors: Nada Majdalani (Palestine), Yana Abu Taleb (Jordan) and Gidon Bromberg (Israel)
EcoPeace was founded on 7 December, 1994, at a meeting of environmental NGOs in Taba, Egypt
EcoPeace was founded on 7 December, 1994
A ‘peace triangle’ between Israel, Palestine and Jordan
The peace triangle strategy would direct trade between Haifa (Israel, pictured), Gaza (Palestine), Beirut (Lebanon) and Tartus (Syria) [credit: Emrah Onder]
The peace triangle strategy would direct trade between Haifa (pictured), Gaza, Beirut and Tartus (credit: Emrah Onder)
EcoPeace's Nada Majdalani and Gidon Bromberg with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission
EcoPeace co-directors with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission
Solar energy, from farms like these in Jordan, is a key element of the peace triangle strategy (credit: Marc Osborne)
Solar energy, from farms like these in Jordan, is a key element of the peace triangle strategy (credit: Marc Osborne)
EcoPeace Middle East’s flagship idea is called the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) Peace Triangle, which is the current focus of its high level advocacy among political and business leaders.
IMEC is a proposed network of rail lines, shipping ports and high-speed data cables, designed to boost trade and mitigate the threat to the international economy posed by maritime chokepoints including the now infamous Straits of Hormuz. The US, India, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, France, Germany, Italy and the EU have all signed an agreement to develop IMEC, which would better connect trade from India, through Israel, to Europe.
Launched at the G20 summit in September 2023, IMEC was conceived as an economic and trade policy. EcoPeace Middle East is now proposing adding the concept of a “peace triangle” between Israel, Palestine, and Jordan to IMEC. The peace triangle would constitute shared infrastructure, trade and renewable energy projects between the three countries, creating the sort of economic and diplomatic dependencies through which the European Coal and Steel Community engendered stability in Western Europe.
EcoPeace Middle East says the peace triangle creates the stability crucial to the success of IMEC, while at the same time IMEC helps deliver peace and climate security across the region.
Private sector investments are central to the peace triangle, rather than grants or aid, to foster sustainable economic growth and create the financial interdependencies between countries which serve as a deterrent to conflict.
EcoPeace believes that without a resolution to the wider conflict in the Middle East investors will be reluctant to commit the massive sums necessary for IMEC to succeed.
Bromberg said: “[IMEC] is a political agreement that we're coming and saying can do much more than just improve the economy. It can lead to climate resilience, it can lead to regional security. But this is big-time investment. This is not a few hundred thousand dollars, this is hundreds of millions of dollars. The rehabilitation of Gaza is estimated about US$71bn alone.”
Bromberg is explicit that EcoPeace Middle East’s vision for Palestine is a two-state solution, with regional economic integration used to cement political stability. He’s also clear that the reconstruction of Gaza needs to be funded by investment, rather than philanthropy and aid funding, to be truly transformative for the Strip’s communities.
He said: “We want to see the state of Palestine with the state of Israel. As part of that, we need to rehabilitate Gaza, and we want the engine that rebuilds Gaza not to be another round of donor assistance, but to be private sector-led investments that have the region put skin in the game, so that they have an interest to make sure that extremists on both sides don't come back.”
But, he argues, without the peace triangle and specific focus on climate security that the peace triangle strategy brings, IMEC risks exacerbating existing inequalities: “We're trying to move it from a rich man's club to an economic engine of shared prosperity. IMEC presents the opportunity of a powerful economic engine, originally designed to be an engine for a rich group of countries. We're coming and saying let's by design share the benefits of that economic engine.”
Three projects to build the
peace triangle
First, EcoPeace Middle East proposes building an electrified rail network running from Alexandria port in Egypt to ports in Palestine (Gaza), Israel (Haifa), Lebanon (Beirut) and Syria (Tartus).
The original IMEC proposal utilises just Haifa as a Mediterranean port, thereby delivering trade benefits to Israel only. The peace triangle proposes the inclusion of Gaza, Beirut and Tartus to boost the economies of those cities, which can support their post-conflict reconstructions.
With IMEC trade routed through those cities by the electrified rail network, the whole region (and countries in the EU and Asia) will have reason to prevent new conflicts threatening their safety.
The second project is using solar plants and wind farms in Jordan and Saudi Arabia to generate renewable energy for the region, but also to export to Europe via the ports connected by the new electrified rail network.
The organisation’s research has identified parts of Jordan and Saudi Arabia as optimal locations for solar plants. EcoPeace Middle East argues increased renewable energy from the Middle East could reduce Europe’s energy dependence on Russian gas.
The third project would see a water-energy exchange between Jordan, Israel and Palestine.
Solar power generated in Jordan would be exchanged for desalinated water from Israel and Palestine, furthering the economic and infrastructure dependencies between those countries.
A fully interactive version of this map, illustrating the details of the IMEC Peace Triangle plan, can be found through the link below to the EcoPeace Middle East website.
“We find impact investors are scared to touch our work.”
In defence of investing in peace
Given Bromberg’s focus on investment rather than aid to deliver truly significant positive social and environmental impacts, one might assume raising money from impact investors is a key focus for EcoPeace Middle East.
But, Bromberg said while he would love impact investors to buy into the organisation’s plans, in his experience they aren’t willing to take the financial and political risk: “We find impact investors are scared to touch our work,” he says.
A report published by Phenix Capital Group in April 2025 found that, out of a database of 2,900 impact funds, only 40 target SDG16, which covers peace, justice and strong institutions.
Bromberg explains that impact measurement in peace building is much less quantifiable than in areas which receive impact investment more commonly, like health or financial inclusion.
Beyond that, he believes impact investors are nervous about engaging in a politically fraught topic, which could involve both financial and reputational risk:
“The impact investment community is not meeting the challenge to be greater risk takers. When you invest in peace, you might be seen as taking sides, as if peace belongs to one side. Of course, there are those that don’t want to see a two-state solution on both sides, and they have allies and alliances globally, so there’s also greater risk for the investors that are not present in issues that are considered more consensus and mainstream.”
There has been vociferous debate among the impact investing community recently as to whether ‘defence’ spending can be considered impact investing. Bromberg argues that instead of impact investors putting money into ‘defence’ they could put their money into peace, which would also achieve greater security for the countries they presumably want to protect.
“I'm not coming and saying that there should not be any militaries in the world. I wish we were in that situation, but as the son of a Holocaust survivor, I have a lived experience that I can’t ignore,” he says. “But the lack of investment in peace building, and the lack of understanding that that investment is an investment in security, is mind boggling.
“The agreed number of trucks was 600 trucks per day, but Gaza is getting around 200 trucks of humanitarian aid per day.”
Grassroots water projects in Gaza
Gaza City, December 2025 (credit: Mohammed Ibrahim)
Gaza City, December 2025 (credit: Mohammed Ibrahim)
Nada Majdalani, Palestine Director of EcoPeace Middle East, was part of the Palestinian-Israeli Young Entrepreneurs Forum
Nada Majdalani, EcoPeace Middle East, was part of the Palestinian-Israeli Young Entrepreneurs Forum
EcoPeace Middle East has been working with partners in Gaza to dig and repair shallow wells to provide drinking water
EcoPeace Middle East has been working with partners in Gaza to dig and repair shallow wells to provide drinking water
As if the beyond Herculean task that those genuinely working towards peace in the Middle East face needed emphasising, one need only listen to EcoPeace Middle East’s Palestine director Nada Majdalani describe the extreme challenges currently faced by the people of Gaza.
“The situation is devastating. Hospitals are down, the sewer system is down, and the other day I saw how mosquitoes are accumulating around tents,” she says.
“Since the announcement of the ceasefire and the Trump 2.0 point peace plan, we expected that the killing of civilians will cease, that access to humanitarian aid would be improved. The agreed number of trucks was 600 trucks per day, but Gaza is getting around 200 trucks of humanitarian aid per day.”
The work in Gaza illustrates EcoPeace Middle East’s grassroots work to meet the immediate needs of people who need it most. In recent years, its focus has been on providing access to water for the thousands of people forced to live in tents because their homes have been destroyed by fighting.
One effort, to get equipment into Gaza to make water desalination units, has been unsuccessful. Israel controls everything currently imported into Gaza, and almost all the necessary parts, including pipes, pumps and fiberglass vessels, are included in Israeli’s prohibited list of items which could be used for military purposes.
More successful have been EcoPeace Middle East’s projects to dig and repair shallow wells to provide drinking water. Working with partners in Gaza, EcoPeace Middle East has identified engineers and contractors in the Strip with access to diggers, cranes and other construction vehicles, who can then carry out the work on the wells in addition to recovering working parts from partially destroyed wells.
But once the wells are operational, more challenges arise. They require power, and Gaza’s electricity grid has been decimated by the war. Like the well pumps, solar panels are being gathered and repaired from the wreckage and put to good use.
Beyond that, diesel generators are relied on for power. But generators are designed for temporary use, not to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for months on end, as they currently are doing in Gaza. Not only is Gaza running out of diesel, the generators themselves are breaking down. EcoPeace Middle East is advocating for the international community to push Israel to allow the importation of lubricating oils and spare parts for the generators.
A climate security solution showcase
Jordan EcoPark is an ecotourism and environmental education hub in the Jordan River Valley, through which EcoPeace Middle East showcases its sustainable development projects and climate security solutions.
The EcoPark includes environmentally friendly wooden cabins, solar panel installations and sewage treatment systems. By implementing the kinds of renewable energy and climate security projects it seeks to deliver for communities elsewhere, EcoPeace Middle East says it has transformed a vast area of land from “a dusty plot....to a tree-filled, ecologically diverse habitat.”
Visitors to Jordan EcoPark can choose to camp or stay in one of 17 wooden cabins
Visitors to Jordan EcoPark can choose to camp or stay in one of 17 wooden cabins
Job opportunities in industries like ecotourism, wetland conservation and organic farming have been created by the EcoPark, which welcomes more than 20,000 visitors a year. After enjoying activities including hiking, cycling and camping, those visitors are able to buy locally grown produce from the area’s communities, including olives, honey and fruits.
EcoPeace Middle East uses the EcoPark as a hub to deliver training workshops on topics like climate security, environmentally friendly water management and sustainable development. Attendees, which range from members of local communities to visiting diplomats, are able to see practical examples of the topics they are being trained in.
Yana Abu Taleb, EcoPeace Middle East’s Jordan director, says the EcoPark demonstrates to decision makers, funders and investors that small-scale climate security interventions can be extremely impactful, while also being more realistic to deliver than high-budget projects.
“Why are we always thinking of large scale projects that the government doesn’t have money to conduct?” she says. “Localised solutions can be the way forward for many communities. We showcase this, so when they come and see with their own eyes, they start thinking of implementing these solutions in other communities as well.”
Yana Abu Taleb, EcoPeace Middle East’s Jordan director, says vists to Jordan EcoPark can support communities to implement their own climate security projects
Yana Abu Taleb, EcoPeace Middle East’s Jordan director, says vists to Jordan EcoPark can support communities to implement their own climate security projects
“We really need to think of mechanisms that would transition us from the current emergency response reality towards a sustainable long-term solution.”
‘Losing hope is the worst case’
When asked if working towards peace and stability in the Middle East feels like a realistic goal when faced with the current situation in Gaza, Majdalani’s response is forthright.
“Is it relevant to what’s happening now on the ground? Of course not,” she says. “But we really need to think of mechanisms that would transition us from the current emergency response reality towards a sustainable long-term solution. Honestly, as a Palestinian, I’m allowed to dream a little bit, because losing hope is the worst case.”
Majdalani believes it is imperative that Palestinians have credible plans for sustainable economic development and regional stability, otherwise they are unable to present alternatives to schemes proposed by external actors, most obviously Israel and the US.
And Majdalani is convinced that the business of climate security and uniting against the climate crisis is the most credible plan Palestine, and the wider region, has to overcome the deep-rooted enmity and history of conflict of its peoples.
“I think it is the best mechanism where we can sit around the table and find mutual gains, shared solutions, and the ability to understand the position of the other. It’s not necessarily that we become best friends, or that peace would be attained tomorrow, but at least that we understand that we all deserve better mechanisms to address climate issues.”
Nada Majdalani, EcoPeace Middle East, says there is an urgent need to transition from emergency response to sustainable solutions for Gaza
Nada Majdalani says there is an urgent need to transition from emergency response to sustainable solutions for Gaza
UNICEF estimates that nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure has been destroyed
UNICEF estimates that nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure has been destroyed
Photos and videos courtesy of EcoPeace Middle East unless otherwise credited.
Words by David Lyons. Design by Fanny Blanquier.
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