Towards a Sustainable (Investment) Climate : A Case Study of Economic Normative Fit and the Evolution of Normative Intentions of Climate Change Financing in the World Bank Group 2000-2021

Abstract: This thesis examines the evolution of normative intentions of climate change financing in the World Bank Group (WBG) between the years 2000–2021. The study contributes to critical constructivist International Relations theory by expanding on previous research on norm fit by examining the evolutionary process of economic normative fit. The purpose is to make visible, and provide an empirical example, of how hegemonic structures interact with suggested norms and set the conditions for possible action. The thesis asks the questions 1) How have normative intentions regarding climate finance been framed over time in World Bank Group documents in 2000–2021? And 2), How can this development be understood through an application of “norm fit” with the hegemonic economic structure? The thesis has a deductive qualitative approach and applies qualitative content analysis and framing analysis to examine official documents from the WBG consisting of biannual meeting communiqués, climate change action plans, and annual reports. The study finds that economic framings of climate change has varied in four key time periods and that ideas of climate action has gone from being seen as a peripheral issue outside the WBG mandate, to something costly and risky, to a potential opportunity and being framed as a business model of smart economics. Further, the thesis concludes that the case supports the idea of economic normative fit and illustrates, based on the findings of research question 1, how the climate change financing norm goes through a translation process of bad to good economic normative fit in which normative intentions adapt with time to a logic coherent with dominant neoliberal norms and can thus be accepted. With the most convincing result being the identified translation process of normative intentions of adaptation and resilience.