Reimagining Climate Finance in Southeast Asia: Gender, Power, and the Politics of Climate Actions

Type

Single Panel

Schedule

Session 8
Wed 17:00-18:30 Room 153

Convener

Irma Nugrahanti International Institute of Social Studies

Discussant

Danny Marks Dublin City University

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Papers

Who really benefits from agrisolar? Power, markets, and smallholder farmers in the Philippines Carl Vincent Gapasin Department of Agriculture Manuel De Vera Asian Institute of Management Novee Grace Nalica ACWA Power Shunie Pearl Palacios Peace and Equity Foundation
The rapid expansion of utility-scale solar power plants in the Philippines is intensifying competition for agricultural land, raising concerns for food system resilience, smallholder livelihoods, and equitable land use. While climate finance has become central to the issue of just transition, the arrangements are often shaped by market-oriented approaches, with limited empirical evidence on how such models may affect smallholder-based markets for farmers in developing contexts.
This study examines a proposed agrisolar (agrivoltaic) enterprise model in Cabayugan, Puerto Princesa, Palawan, designed for deployment within an existing solar microgrid power plant that operates under the Philippine government’s missionary electrification framework. The proposed model introduces agricultural production beneath and around established photovoltaic infrastructure that positions agrisolar as a dual-use strategy that optimizes land use without displacing energy generation. The study employs a participatory approach via engagement with farmer associations, local government units, private sector actors, and the generation company responsible for the microgrid operations, combined with methods on value-chain analysis, agro-climatic assessment and financial modeling.
Results from technical and financial assessments suggest that shade-tolerant, high-value crops could be cultivated under photovoltaic systems that potentially stabilize yields and reduce production risks. When combined with cooperative-led aggregation and institutional buyer linkages, the model is expected to enhance market participation and support income streams diversification. However, the proposed structure reflects the significant influence of private and energy-sector actors, which may constrain decision-making power among smallholder farmers.
Overall, the study presents agrisolar as a viable pathway for strengthening agricultural market systems and improving livelihood resilience, though the need for a more balanced governance arrangements in climate finance design vis-à-vis farmers’ rights.
A Feminist Political Economy Analysis of Gender-Responsive Climate Budgeting in Indonesia Irma Nugrahanti International Institute of Social Studies
Gender mainstreaming in climate budgeting is an important aspect of equitable climate governance, yet its implementation is hindered by entrenched political, institutional, and socioeconomic barriers. This paper investigates these dynamics in Indonesia, focusing on how structural factors, such as institutional arrangements, power relations, and social hierarchies, along with prevailing ideologies and agency, shape the barriers to incorporating gender considerations into climate finance at multiple levels of government. Drawing on frameworks from feminist economics and political economy, the research views gender-responsive climate budgeting as a complicated political process that is ingrained in broader power dynamics, resource distributions, and social norms rather than as a technical exercise in public financial management. Climate budgeting represents a significant part of the broader challenge associated with achieving equitable green transitions. Technocratic approaches prioritize efficiency, growth, and infrastructural investments, whereas feminist economics highlights the overlooked aspects of social reproduction and differentiated vulnerabilities. The political economy viewpoint provides explanatory insight by demonstrating how institutional frameworks, incentive system and political support influence the priority or marginalization of gender-responsive climate budgeting. Empirical findings from this study illustrate this interaction across governance levels.
The study utilises a multi-level qualitative approach, drawing on national and subnational budget documents, key informant interviews, and case studies of selected areas that are implementing gender-responsive climate budgeting initiatives. This methodology allows for an investigation of how local interpretations, adaptations, or resistance to national mandates occur, as well as the ways in which feminist economic concerns about social reproduction, equality, and care connect with political economy processes.
The research argues, using political economy and feminist economics, that gender-responsive climate budgeting in Indonesia faces not only technical and knowledge gap challenges, but also deeper institutional, ideological, and political challenges. Together, they offer a more comprehensive framework to design gender-responsive climate strategies, advancing Indonesia’s green and just transition.

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Abstract

Climate finance has become a fundamental component of both national and international responses to the climate crisis. However, it is often presented as a technical challenge of mobilising sufficient resources for climate mitigation and adaptation. Across Southeast Asia, governmental financial allocations, global climate funding, development finance, and private investments intersect with persistent inequalities in gender, socioeconomic status, political power, and access to decision-making. This roundtable brings together perspectives from feminist political economy, political ecology, environmental justice to examine these dynamics shape public policy, just energy transition and community development across different scales and locations of climate action in Southeast Asia. Drawing on experiences from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, participants will explore how climate finance decisions may perpetuate existing inequalities when questions of livelihoods, gender, institutional power and local community agency are not adequately considered. Acknowledging that finance is not neutral, the roundtable will explore how financial choices shape whose priorities are valued, who has access to decision-making arenas, who bears the risks, and who benefits from climate actions.
Some of the questions we aim to discuss are:

How do gendered power structures, historical and systemic inequalities influence access to climate finance?
How do we design budgets, investment, and climate mechanism for just climate actions?
What role do national budgets, donors, and multilateral institutions play in shaping priorities?
What forms of participation and governance would enable communities and smallholders to exercise meaningful engagement rather than simply being beneficiaries?
What would climate finance look like if distributive, procedural and recognition justice are treated as core measures of success alongside emissions reductions and financial profits?
What kinds of governance arrangements are needed to ensure that climate mitigation and adaptation finance responds to the needs of communities facing the greatest environmental risks?
Through these questions, the roundtable invites participants to reimagine climate finance, not simply as a funding mechanism and technical instrument for enabling the green transition, but as a political and contested process through which social, ecological, and governance priorities are shaped.