Toward Cognitive Justice: Reconstructions of Climate Finance Governance in Fiji

Abstract

In response to climate change’s devastating impacts on Pacific nations such as Fiji, climate finance—that is, the flow of public and private funds toward climate-aligned investment—has been presented as a promising solution. However, climate finance has had mixed results in delivering positive climate-aligned development benefits. In this article, we explore the climate finance governance around Fiji’s energy sector using postcolonial analytical tools, which allow us to explore some of the asymmetries playing out in climate finance and offer some alternatives. We argue that climate finance dysfunction is, in part, derived from the application of hegemonic knowledges in climate finance governance, and we aim to deconstruct these knowledge practices and subsequently, through the analysis of empirical, ethnographic data, to reconstruct governance alternatives that provide for epistemic inclusivity. This article demonstrates how Indigenous approaches such as talanoa and ‘iluvatu can facilitate recognition of governance innovation, and, in doing so, it considers the potential of cognitive justice, which calls for epistemic inclusivity, within the context of climate finance governance. The article concludes that including cognitive justice in climate finance governance can indeed promote better climate-aligned development benefits in Fiji and beyond.