Conference Program

As international cooperation breaks down and development increasingly framed as investment opportunity, global climate governance relies on private investment to manage energy transitions, a shift that risks reproducing global power asymmetries. This paper investigates how different climate finance instruments (grants, loans, and blended finance) shape justice outcomes in the Global South. Drawing on work on the Wall Street Consensus, where public funds de-risk private investment, this research explores whether these frameworks enable a just transition or facilitate green structural adjustment.

Using a qualitative, multi-scalar comparative case study design, the research analyzes two distinct transition models: Indonesia’s $20 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) and Colombia’s national Just Transition Roadmap. While the Indonesia JETP is heavily structured through Global North-led debt-based loans and policy conditionality, Colombia’s national model also faces significant public funding shortages that see it turning to private financial investment.

Drawing on preliminary fieldwork from Colombia (January–May 2025) and outlining the upcoming comparative phase in Indonesia, the paper brings critical political economy into dialogue with decolonial and pluriversal theories. By exploring how affected communities articulate alternative visions for their futures, this research offers constructive insights for building pathways that resist domination and prioritize people. It challenges the technocratic narrowing of climate finance, advocating for transitions that are grounded in local realities rather than global financial metrics.

As climate change impacts intensify and global development finance becomes increasingly constrained, attention is turning to the role of diasporas in supporting resilient futures. Remittances and other forms of diaspora engagement are increasingly recognized as stable and dependable sources of finance, particularly in contexts where traditional aid and climate finance are under pressure. This paper situates these contributions within the framework of diasporic internationalism, examining how transnational diaspora resources can support climate resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa.

While diasporic internationalism offers promising pathways for enhancing resilience, the paper argues that its effectiveness depends on the strategic role of governments in shaping enabling environments for diaspora engagement. It critically examines the obligations of states, addressing the policy strategies required for governments to effectively harness diaspora resources for climate resilience. By foregrounding the role of the state, the paper contributes to debates on climate finance, migration–development linkages, and resilience, and highlights the conditions under which diasporic internationalism can support just and sustainable futures.

The war and destruction caused by the Israeli occupation in Palestine do not only exacerbate climate change within Palestine itself, often extending environmental harm to neighbouring regions, but also produce long-term ecological damage that will persist for decades. The systematic destruction of olive trees, agricultural land, grasslands, and water infrastructure, alongside air pollution and toxic remnants of warfare, directly undermines the health, livelihoods, and ecological foundations of Palestinian life. These conditions have strong impacts on everyday survival, including access to clean water, food security, and public health, and have been linked to severe long-term consequences such as environmental contamination and heightened risks of birth defects among populations living under prolonged exposure to war-related environmental degradation. The analysis draws on documented cases from Gaza and the West Bank, including the destruction of agricultural land, water and sanitation systems, and toxic environmental exposure resulting from repeated military assaults, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

This paper argues that climate change in Palestine must be understood through the lens of war and occupation, and that environmental damage caused by warfare constitutes a form of climate injustice and environmental violence. Rather than treating climate change as a purely natural or technical phenomenon, the paper demonstrates that, in the Palestinian context, environmental degradation is inseparable from militarization, settler colonialism, and political violence. It contributes to climate change and development scholarship by foregrounding war and occupation as central drivers of climate vulnerability, rather than peripheral or exceptional conditions.

It concludes by calling for forms of internationalism that recognize environmental accountability in contexts of war and support climate justice grounded in self-determination, repair, and decolonization. By centering Palestine, the paper highlights the limits of contemporary climate and development frameworks and calls for an internationalism that confronts environmental harm produced by militarism, rather than merely managing its consequences.

This paper offers further empirical evidence on devolution and climate change adaptation governance in Zimbabwe. It affirms findings (e.g., Jabson et al., 2025)* that uneven devolution sustains centralized control of climate resources, exacerbates local capacity gaps, and contributes to policy misalignment, coordination challenges, and partisan political influence.

Two research trips in June 2024 and 2025 (seven weeks total) generated seventy in person interviews with key informants from government, NGOs, and community associations in Mwenezi District, Gwanda District, Harare, and Bulawayo. Their experiences, expertise, and interpretations of the policy landscape across national, provincial, and local levels (e.g., multilateral agreements, policies, by-laws, statutory instruments) show how diverse actors collaborate amid significant organizational complexity to enact climate adaptation in Zimbabwe.

Given that this research occurs alongside GAC-funded project implementation**, the paper also reflects on research methods and relationships to “interrogate assumptions of ‘development’” (CASID Call For Proposals).

*M. Jabson, A. Ncube, O. Kungum (2025). Impact of Devolution on Building Community Resilience Against Climate Change in Zimbabwe: The Case Of Sanyati District. Social Values And Society, 7(1): 01-05.

** Funded by Global Affairs Canada (Partnering for Climate - P4C), this research is supported by Mennonite Central Committee Canada’s LINCZ Project (Locally Led Indigenous Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation in Zimbabwe - https://www.lincz.ca/about ), together with MCC Zimbabwe and their local partners.