Racial formation, coloniality, and climate finance organizations: Implications for emergent data projects in the Pacific

Abstract

This commentary explores the potential consequence of latent racial formation in emergent climate finance data projects and draws from ethnographic research on climate finance governance conducted in Fiji. Climate finance data projects emerging in the Pacific aim to ease the flow of finance from the Global North to the South. These emergent data projects, such as renewable energy resource availability and investment mapping, are imbedded in the climate finance organizations that fund, develop, and use them. Thus, the commentary explores climate finance organizations through the lens of Ray’s (2019) theory of racial organizations, highlighting the ways in which important climate-related resources are mediated through racial and colonial schemas. The racial mediation of two key resources are spotlighted in this discussion: the finance itself and knowledge. Given that the Pacific region is at the coalface of climate change’s existential effects, the just allocation of resources is imperative. In interrogating the ways in which emergent data projects may deny these resources based on hidden racial schemas, the paper cautions against new and old forms of colonization that may be mobilized through even well-meaning techno-benevolent fixes ( Benjamin, 2019 ).

Situating questions of data, power, and racial formation

“…The concluding commentary by Anantharajah (2021) examines how racial formation takes shape through data projects, drawing on ethnographic research on climate finance governance conducted in Fiji. Her explanation of how climate finance organizations develop and use data projects to support flows of capital targeting the Pacific elaborates on how such practices are mediated through schemas with both colonial and racial contours-lenses that have racializing implications even though they are not visible on the surface.…”

Climate justice is social justice in the Global South

“…It also manifests in how colonial powers in the Global North continue to impose their hegemonic influence on Global South countries by posing as de facto climate leaders 4 . Even the delivery of solutions such as climate financing reflects procedural injustices, as they are often executed in ways that frame Global South countries as incompetent or unaccountable actors 8 .…”