Why we call it ‘dirty finance’ - CPI

The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) explains its decision to adopt the term "dirty finance" to describe investments that damage the environment and contribute to climate change, replacing the term "brown finance" due to its offensive connotations for people of color.

• The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) has decided to use the term "dirty finance" to describe investment that "ultimately hurts our environment and the people who live in it," choosing it for its pithiness and ability to work across languages.
• CPI is moving away from the term "brown finance" because it is considered offensive, as the color brown can denote skin color, and associating it with detrimental societal impacts is "hurtful and damaging" for people of color.
• During the selection process for a replacement term, CPI considered "Grey" finance, used by the United Nations, but found it too neutral, and "Polluting" finance, which was deemed ineffective internationally or across various climate sectors like adaptation.
• While "dirty finance" is used for general communications to send a strong signal, CPI will continue to use more technical terms, such as "high-emissions finance," in technical documents to avoid confusion with necessary agricultural funding for soil and fertilizers.

APA

Dreyer, C. (2020). Why we call it ‘dirty finance’ - CPI. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/why-we-call-it-dirty-finance/

Chicago

Dreyer, Caroline. Why we call it ‘dirty finance’ - CPI. Climate Policy Initiative, 2020. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/why-we-call-it-dirty-finance/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Dreyer |first1=Caroline |title=Why we call it ‘dirty finance’ - CPI |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=14 September 2020 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/why-we-call-it-dirty-finance/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{dreyer2020why, author = {Dreyer, Caroline}, title = {{Why we call it ‘dirty finance’ - CPI}}, publisher = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2020}, month = sep, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/why-we-call-it-dirty-finance/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }