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Climate, Coloniality and Financialization: A Decolonial Analysis of Global Climate Finance

Rybol, Judith LU (2023) HEKM51 20231
Human Geography
Department of Human Geography
Human Ecology
Abstract
Providing adequate climate finance, meaning funding for mitigation, adaptation or loss and damage, has been very high on the global policy agenda recently. The political economy and ecology behind it are much more complex and morally multidimensional than the mainstream finance world likes to present it though, which results in grave colonial injustices, international debt crises, deepened global inequalities and heightened climate vulnerabilities. I conducted a decolonial content and policy analysis of global climate finance to shed light on these processes and assess possible suggestions for reform. I found that the climate finance landscape is deeply infused with coloniality, across the dimensions of being, power and knowledge.... (More)
Providing adequate climate finance, meaning funding for mitigation, adaptation or loss and damage, has been very high on the global policy agenda recently. The political economy and ecology behind it are much more complex and morally multidimensional than the mainstream finance world likes to present it though, which results in grave colonial injustices, international debt crises, deepened global inequalities and heightened climate vulnerabilities. I conducted a decolonial content and policy analysis of global climate finance to shed light on these processes and assess possible suggestions for reform. I found that the climate finance landscape is deeply infused with coloniality, across the dimensions of being, power and knowledge. Concretely, omnipresent financialization, especially with regards to risk and vulnerability accounting, is aggravating coloniality by discounting and commodifying human lives. Similarly, the continued favoring of privatization creates undemocratic power imbalances and increases sovereign debt to the detriment of social spending. I illustrate this with the examples of the multilateral, World Bank and IMF-backed Green Climate Fund and Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. Decolonizing this dangerously hubristic system is not evident, but another example, the Bridgetown Initiative, shows that well-crafted, global South-led demands for reform to address the debt burden and build climate resilience can be a step on the way towards the decoloniality of climate finance. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Rybol, Judith LU
supervisor
organization
course
HEKM51 20231
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
language
English
id
9114372
date added to LUP
2023-07-26 10:46:44
date last changed
2023-07-26 10:46:44
@misc{9114372,
  abstract     = {{Providing adequate climate finance, meaning funding for mitigation, adaptation or loss and damage, has been very high on the global policy agenda recently. The political economy and ecology behind it are much more complex and morally multidimensional than the mainstream finance world likes to present it though, which results in grave colonial injustices, international debt crises, deepened global inequalities and heightened climate vulnerabilities. I conducted a decolonial content and policy analysis of global climate finance to shed light on these processes and assess possible suggestions for reform. I found that the climate finance landscape is deeply infused with coloniality, across the dimensions of being, power and knowledge. Concretely, omnipresent financialization, especially with regards to risk and vulnerability accounting, is aggravating coloniality by discounting and commodifying human lives. Similarly, the continued favoring of privatization creates undemocratic power imbalances and increases sovereign debt to the detriment of social spending. I illustrate this with the examples of the multilateral, World Bank and IMF-backed Green Climate Fund and Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. Decolonizing this dangerously hubristic system is not evident, but another example, the Bridgetown Initiative, shows that well-crafted, global South-led demands for reform to address the debt burden and build climate resilience can be a step on the way towards the decoloniality of climate finance.}},
  author       = {{Rybol, Judith}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Climate, Coloniality and Financialization: A Decolonial Analysis of Global Climate Finance}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}