REIMAGINING CLIMATE FINANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: LESSONS FROM CARBON MARKETS IN OVERCOMING INSTITUTIONAL ASYMMETRY

  • Unique Paper ID: 186522
  • PageNo: 1057-1064
  • Abstract:
  • Global climate finance remains trapped between political commitments and systemic delivery failures. Despite the Paris Agreement’s pledge of US $100 billion annually for developing countries, actual needs exceed US $5.9 trillion by 2030. This shortfall is compounded by a systemic governance failure: developed nations maintain asymmetric control over multilateral institutions through the logic of substitution. This mechanism involves strategically pursuing permissive funding rules (earmarking) where weighted voting is prohibited, thereby undermining equity and local agency, particularly regarding the massive adaptation finance gap. Anchored in institutional theory, leveraging the resource-based view (RBV) to define local governance as an inimitable organizational capital, and framed by the sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF), this conceptual paper posits that well-governed, devolved carbon markets offer a strategic solution to bypass these institutional constraints. We propose a strategic governance model based on five pathways; governance architecture, localization, equity and balanced benefit-sharing, institutional partnerships, and transparency, drawing evidence from global policy and the success of the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project (KCRP). Drawing on KCRP's innovative local governance structures, we argue that codifying local revenue autonomy serves as the critical strategic countermeasure to the political limitations of the global architecture, creating a pathway toward de-politicized climate justice.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{186522,
        author = {John Mwangeka Mwakima and Prof. Karim Hassanali Omido},
        title = {REIMAGINING CLIMATE FINANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: LESSONS FROM CARBON MARKETS IN OVERCOMING INSTITUTIONAL ASYMMETRY},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {6},
        pages = {1057-1064},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=186522},
        abstract = {Global climate finance remains trapped between political commitments and systemic delivery failures. Despite the Paris Agreement’s pledge of US $100 billion annually for developing countries, actual needs exceed US $5.9 trillion by 2030. This shortfall is compounded by a systemic governance failure: developed nations maintain asymmetric control over multilateral institutions through the logic of substitution. This mechanism involves strategically pursuing permissive funding rules (earmarking) where weighted voting is prohibited, thereby undermining equity and local agency, particularly regarding the massive adaptation finance gap. Anchored in institutional theory, leveraging the resource-based view (RBV) to define local governance as an inimitable organizational capital, and framed by the sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF), this conceptual paper posits that well-governed, devolved carbon markets offer a strategic solution to bypass these institutional constraints. We propose a strategic governance model based on five pathways; governance architecture, localization, equity and balanced benefit-sharing, institutional partnerships, and transparency, drawing evidence from global policy and the success of the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project (KCRP). Drawing on KCRP's innovative local governance structures, we argue that codifying local revenue autonomy serves as the critical strategic countermeasure to the political limitations of the global architecture, creating a pathway toward de-politicized climate justice.},
        keywords = {Climate Finance, Carbon Markets, Institutional Asymmetry, Logic of Substitution, Strategic Governance Model, Devolved Climate Governance; Adaptation–Mitigation Balance, Climate Justice, Global South, Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project (KCRP).},
        month = {November},
        }

Cite This Article

Mwakima, J. M., & Omido, P. K. H. (2025). REIMAGINING CLIMATE FINANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: LESSONS FROM CARBON MARKETS IN OVERCOMING INSTITUTIONAL ASYMMETRY. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology (IJIRT). https://doi.org/doi.org/10.64643/IJIRTV12I6-186522-459

Related Articles