Volume IV: Society, Culture, and Local Ecological Wisdom

Decolonizing Global Carbon Trade: Reorienting Islamic Economic Systems for Malay World Ecological Justice

  • Aay Mohamad Furkon UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia

Keywords

Carbon colonialism; decoloniality; ecological justice; fiqh al-bi'ah; Islamic public finance.

Abstract

The global climate crisis has necessitated rapid interventions, culminating in the popularization of net- zero emissions targets and carbon neutrality frameworks on a worldwide scale. However, the expansion of global carbon markets, heavily driven by the Paris Agreement, relies on carbon credits and voluntary offsets that disproportionately commodify the natural resources of the Global South. The Malay World, encompassing vital tropical forests in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Southern Thailand, and the Southern Philippines, functions as a critical global carbon sink but faces exploitative pressures from these neoliberal mechanisms. This article critiques contemporary carbon trading as a reproduction of green colonialism, which extracts the ecological capacities of the Malay World to sustain high-emission industrial practices elsewhere. To address this epistemic and ecological injustice, the study introduces fiqh al-bi'ah (Islamic environmental jurisprudence) as a robust decolonial paradigm. Furthermore, it proposes a fundamental reorientation of Islamic public finance and economic systems, presenting instruments such as waqf and zakat as equitable alternatives to carbon offsets. The theoretical contribution lies in synthesizing decolonial political economy with Islamic environmental ethics to formulate a just ecological framework.

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