Climate Finance; the Neoliberal Masquerade (Shining a light on current global climate finance approaches as measured against the proposed Climate Debt)

Palloway, Brook (2022) Climate Finance; the Neoliberal Masquerade (Shining a light on current global climate finance approaches as measured against the proposed Climate Debt). Bachelor thesis, Global Responsibility & Leadership (GRL).

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Abstract

As the world wrestles with how to manage the spectre of the Climate Crisis, developing states and activists have been advocating for the recognition and remuneration of a Climate Debt. The OECD suggests US$95 trillion is owed by the Global North to the Global South for its historic overconsumption of atmospheric space through greenhouse gas emissions. Split between an Emission (or Mitigation) Debt and an Adaptation Debt (with two further sub debts), uptake amongst the North has been latent. The closest parallel to compensation is the polycentric network of Climate Finance institutions and tools. Using four principles of Climate Justice; Distributive, Procedural, Corrective and Social Justice, this paper looks to see how effective the current climate finance regime compares to settling the hypothesised climate debt. Exploring recent literature on climate finance, the paper first explores proponents’ arguments for the Climate Debt, how the debt is broken down and how Climate Justice works as a frame to judge success. After, the growth of climate finance regimes is explored and the structural dominance of the North and its concurrent Neoliberal ideology within them discussed. The paper then explores how current financing schemes are faring in relation to the two main debts; Emission and Adaptation, and Adaptation’s 2 sub-debts; Loss and Damage, and Climate Refugeeism. Finding a pervasion of private corporate interests central to current regimes, the paper reflects on how the centrality of neoliberal ideations of free-market principles and libertarian-derived justice is not only insufficient to meeting any of the measures of climate justice, but actively counter to them. Lastly the paper considers proposals by other authors that could produce more just results, such as private litigation, climate-for-debt swaps, and removal of fossil fuel subsidies. The most critical step to establishing a climate-just climate finance regime is to prioritise procedural justice by advancing representation by the Global South within decision-making structures, from which the others may more easily be established.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor)
Name supervisor:	Faber, N.R.
Date Deposited:	08 Mar 2023 12:49
Last Modified:	08 Mar 2023 12:49
URI:	https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/118

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