Climate finance, despite being framed as a tool of global cooperation, functions as a mechanism that reinforces structural inequalities and constrains policy autonomy in the Global South. Under international mechanisms like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and global agreements like the Paris Agreement, climate finance is represented as a moral and ethical obligation and as an instrument of global cooperation. However, this normative framing contradicts the power asymmetries embedded within their design and implementation processes.

Rather than facilitating climate adaptation and mitigation, climate finance, along with the complex institutional structure, associated policy conditionalities, and access barriers, serves to disproportionately disadvantage the very states it is designed to support. While the developed world has made huge promises regarding climate finance, the developing world remains entangled in the procedural, technical, and political constraints that limit its access to already limited climate finance.

This article is based on the argument that climate finance is far from being neutral or an instrument of global cooperation. Instead, it is a highly political mechanism embedded within the existing global hierarchies, reinforcing power asymmetries. Its extended role in reinforcing dependency and limiting the policy autonomy of states increasingly reflects dynamics that can be understood as “green neo-colonialism.” These patterns of dependency challenge the dominant narrative, framing climate finance as a solution, and instead argue that it is reinforcing the very global inequalities and vulnerabilities that it is trying to solve.

The “Green Promise” of Climate Finance

Recognizing the high stakes of the climate crisis, countries established national targets to limit greenhouse gas emissions and increase resilience to climate change impacts. Implementing these national targets requires a massive amount of finance, far beyond what they can source domestically.  Under the Rio Earth Summit 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted, which recognized that developed countries have a responsibility to assist the developing countries in their efforts to address climate change, including through providing financial resources.

This finance, alongside domestic finance, is essential for developing countries to adopt low-carbon technologies, protect themselves from climate threats, and unleash green development. This convention set the precedents for climate finance, which has evolved from being a marginalized concept into a central pillar in the global response to climate change, a “green promise” that is yet to be fulfilled. In theory, climate finance is not just a source of “economic assistance” but also a tool for “climate justice”—designed to enable sustainable development and bridge the global inequalities. However, the climate finance mechanisms, while being actively shaped as cooperative tools, serve as instruments of structural control, reinforcing dependency and limiting the policy autonomy of the Global South by deeply entrenched structural inequalities in access, decision-making, and implementation.

The Reality: Systemic and Structural Barriers to Access

Despite the increasing attention towards climate finance, institutional challenges remain, making this tool for a “way out” another headache for the already fragile systems of the Global South. Institutional challenges make the funds required by the Global South more challenging to access, adding another layer of uncertainty and complexity to already limited climate finance. These challenges do not exist in isolation; instead, they are amplified because the institutions are not operating well; application processes for acquiring climate finance are complex; and de-risking mechanisms are insufficient.

There is over-dependence on foreign investment, which isn’t safe, and........

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