Green Bonds and Financialized Control: A Green Criminological Analysis of Climate Injustice in the Global South

• In Event: Place, Political Economy, & Environmental Injustice: Studies in Green Criminology

Abstract

This study critically examines the socio-environmental and political implications of green bonds within the context of financial capitalism. Although widely promoted as instruments for sustainable development and climate adaptation, green bonds often lack regulatory oversight and enforceable accountability mechanisms, thereby enabling pervasive greenwashing. The voluntary nature of standards such as the Green Bond Principles—formulated by major financial institutions—facilitates superficial environmental claims and undermines transparency. Through an analysis of the global expansion of green bonds by the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and China, this study demonstrates that green bonds contribute to uneven development by deepening structural inequalities, fostering debt dependence, and accelerating displacement, particularly in communities experiencing ecological and social disorganization. In the Global South, green bonds entrench neocolonial financial structures through multilateral development banks and geopolitical strategies, including China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Furthermore, they exacerbate climate injustice by excluding Indigenous knowledge systems, imposing debt burdens on marginalized populations, and privatizing ecosystems under the guise of green development—thereby compounding vulnerabilities among already disadvantaged groups. These findings underscore an urgent need for regulatory reform grounded in intersectional and decolonial frameworks to critically evaluate the real-world impacts of green bonds on climate justice, equity, and sovereignty.

Authors

• KuoRay Mao, Colorado State University

• Deseret Weeks, Utah State University