DECOLONIAL CLIMATE FINANCE IN PRACTICE: ASSESSING PROPOSED REFORMS

The Stockholm Environment Institute's working paper explores the interplay between colonial legacies, ongoing imperialism and the climate crisis, highlighting how these factors disproportionately affect lower-income countries and marginalized communities while enabling a wealthy minority to benefit from fossil fuel-dependent systems. It reveals that the richest 10% of the global population, mainly from the Global North, is responsible for nearly 50% of CO2 emissions, underscoring the moral imperative that those who contribute most to climate damage should bear its costs. However, the availability of climate finance has historically been limited by structural inequalities and power imbalances in international finance, particularly evident in trade relationships and tensions over corporate taxation between the Global North and South. The paper identifies the need for decolonial climate finance, drawing on frameworks established by Latin American thinkers to critique the coloniality embedded in global economic systems. This approach stresses the importance of dismantling historical injustices and promoting equitable systems that empower the Global South and Indigenous Peoples in decision-making processes. It examines the Bridgetown Initiative as a case study to evaluate its alignment with decolonial principles, raising critical questions about how climate-related problems and solutions are framed.