Kyoto’s Governance Footprint in the Global South

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Abstract

When assessing the more pressing challenges of the Paris Agreement, four aspects become relevant. First, the lack of reliable sources and resources of climate finances–related information. Second, only developed countries’ contributions are being accounted and disseminated. The omission of the resources invested by the developing world to combat climate change skews theoretical analysis, limits accuracy in policy, and has the potential to alienate the Global South against adopting climate policies. Third, loans represent a majority share of the climate finances and are swelling the debt of developing countries, especially in Latin America. Finally, Kyoto’s leaves as legacy a governance model predominantly hierarchical both at general climate finances as well as in REDD+ in the three regions. The goal of this article is to draw a baseline on the quantity and quality of climate finances and specifically those of REDD+, a mechanism targeted at developing countries. There were three distinct stages to this review: (1) the assessment of 13,000 projects implemented in Asia, Africa, and Latin America between 2008 and 2015; (2) the assessment of 312 REDD+ initiatives implemented in the three regions in this period; and (3) the analysis of the governance model propelled by these transactions. Policy implications of the results presented in this article conclude this analysis.