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Abstract
This dissertation explores the confluence of two external forces, anthropogenic climate change and climate finance, in Kiribati. Kiribati, alongside other Pacific Island nations, is poised to receive a substantial increase in climate finance. This finance, pledged under the UNFCCC, is intended to help vulnerable countries not responsible for the problem of climate change to adapt to its impacts. Much current climate finance literature focuses on technical, upstream issues related to the mobilisation, governance and disbursement of climate finance. Climate finance is currently delivered through the same or similar channels as conventional ODA. Many development organisations involved in implementing adaptation projects, such as the World Bank, have firmly entrenched paradigms and epistemologies about development. Yet, climate finance literature rarely either draws from previous theory and experience in critical development studies, or investigates the influence of the development industry on adaptation. This research draws on insights from post-development theory to show how development discourses, policies and practices have segued into the field of climate change adaptation, illustrating the myriad effects of climate finance policy in Kiribati. I argue that in Kiribati climate finance policy has perversely affected the ability to adapt, and that dominant climate finance discourses, and the strategic priorities of climate funds, have played a role in promoting an impacts-based approach to adaptation rather than a vulnerability-oriented approach. This inhibits the ability of climate finance to comprehensively address vulnerability. Policies and practices of the development industry in Kiribati pose considerable barriers to adaptation, inhibiting climate finance from being translated into effective adaptation. By comparing and contrasting perspectives of adaptation actors at different scales of governance, my research reveals the multiple interests, perspectives and agendas, wrapped into adaptation in Kiribati, as well as the complexity of interactions between policy and practice, the power struggles between various actors, and how actors conceptualise barriers to adaptation.