Paper short abstract:

This paper critically examines how understanding of external development finance over the last five decades can inform the framing and delivery of climate justice in response to loss and damage caused by climate change.

Paper long abstract:

Tackling climate change loss and damage has emerged as a central concern of climate action, following the failure to sufficiently prevent human-induced climate change or adapt to its impacts. Loss and damage has also become a central concern of climate justice campaigns and international climate negotiations, culminating in the establishment of an international fund at the COP28 meeting.

This paper asks what an understanding of external international development finance brings to the emergence of socio-environmental justice issues related to climate change loss and damage. The paper does this by critically discussing the conceptual framing of climate justice in the context of loss and damage; reviewing fifty-plus years of analogous research on external development finance; and discussing what such understanding implies for delivering different framings of climate justice in the context of loss and damage.

In doing so, we explore how the framings of climate justice for loss and damage draw on debates around reparations for colonialism and slavery, which could inform the delivery redistributive economic and social justice through compensatory claims. We argue that years of research on development finance can provide a basis for understanding: (a) the limits of external development finance - what external finance can and cannot do; (b) the politics of external finance - who benefits and different socio-economic consequences; and (c) the limits of such experience in delivering climate justice for loss and damage.