Against Climate Aid Colonialism: The Case for Climate Reparations and South-South Solidarity

Abstract

Legacies of colonial rule, continuing neocolonial extraction, and excessive carbon dumping have meant that the majority of those living in the Global South experience many of the consequences of climate change more acutely than those in the Global North. As such, several countries in the Global North have committed to providing climate aid to decarbonise and reverse the alarming climate trajectory in the Global South. Yet, climate aid by and large discounts the internal competencies and resources within the Global South and aligns climate policies with neoliberal market agendas. In arguing against what has been called climate aid colonialism, we advocate for South-South solidarity and climate reparations, wherein climate justice articulated and advanced at the grassroots level from within the Global South is attuned to the socio-political requirements of decolonisation. Together, climate reparations and South-South solidarity can address the structures of coloniality that drive both climate change and climate aid.