The geographical circulation of weather: atmospheric sciences, weather derivatives, and the commodification of the future

Author(s)

Fernando Molnar Castro

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2025-02-07

Examining board members

Manoel Fernandes de Sousa Neto; Rildo Borges Duarte; José Maria do Rosário Chilaúle Langa; Carlos de Almeida Toledo

• Advisor: Manoel Fernandes de Sousa Neto

Abstract

This research discusses the complex relationship between the financial system and atmospheric sciences to create two financial instruments that supposedly would help in economic policies for adapting to climate change. The first financial instrument discussed here is weather derivatives. I will show how these instruments are negotiated at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and how the creation and the spread of weather derivatives from the US to Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia occurred. The second instrument is weather index insurance, discussed here as part of a process of neocolonization of some countries in Africa and Latin America. The dissertation will show how some financial institutions appropriated meteorological data and instruments as a strategy to try to overcome the capital and climate crises. By promoting the enclosure of data and the entire infrastructure of meteorological instruments, these financial institutions attempt to restrict debates on adaptation to climate change, limiting the debate, in Africa and Latin America, to weather index insurance (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 22/07420-4 - The Geographical Circulation of Weather: atmospheric sciences, weather derivatives and the commodification of the future
• Grantee: Fernando Molnar Castro
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master