Melbourne Law School - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 1 of 1
-
Item‘Climate Finance’ and the Philippines: Law, Practice, and Meaning( 2023-03)The international legal response emphasizes ‘climate finance’ as the way forward to increase the capacity of countries to deal with the climate change crisis. Under the Paris Agreement, developed countries have promised to take the lead in mobilizing climate finance to support developing countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change. For the Philippines, however, ‘climate finance,’ as experienced, may be different from what has been envisioned. The thesis investigates the Philippine experience of accessing ‘climate finance’ with the aim of learning more about the meaning and practice of the term. The thesis offers a critical account of climate finance in doctrine and practice. Doctrinal scholarship is used to describe and analyse the legal rules relating to ‘climate finance.’ The thesis uses critical analysis to examine the climate change treaties, the decisions of the Conferences of the Parties and the domestic law relating to climate change and ‘climate finance.’ The thesis then examines the Philippine practice of accessing climate finance specifically through the debts it has incurred, particularly in relation to the energy sector, its adaptation response and the promotion of climate bonds. This thesis demonstrates that climate finance has no fixed or defined meaning. Instead, I argue that climate finance is understood through practices borne out of the interaction of nation-states with each other and with institutions, and through such practices, its meaning has become intertwined with debt, the privatization of the energy sector, the promotion of international trade, and the endorsement of private capital. Insufficient scholarly attention has been given to the historical context of colonialism and development and how this influences current trajectories of climate finance. This thesis aims to fill this gap. The thesis interrogates the Philippines’ interactions with institutions through a decolonial lens and pays attention to the colonial legacies that have influenced and have persisted in such interactions. From such examination, the thesis critically redescribes climate finance as part of a narrative of development – the funding that has gone to the nation-state’s mitigation and adaptation responses have carried on an ongoing development project, and the encounter between climate action and development takes place in the context of an enduring coloniality. The thesis makes a novel contribution to international legal scholarship oriented towards the concerns of the Global South. Furthermore, it contributes to scholarship that engages with the interaction between international law and state-based practice, and it does so within the context of ‘climate finance’ and the climate regime.