Offshore jurisdictions—commonly known as tax havens—play a central role in sustaining the fossil fuel industry through legal, financial, and regulatory frameworks. Over 68% of fossil fuel financing by the world’s 60 largest banks flows through secrecy jurisdictions. These jurisdictions serve as critical nodes in the global economy, shielding corporations from accountability from environmental and labor regulation, transparency and disclosure requirements, and banking and investment protections. This secrecy provides a veil of sovereignty for fossil fuel profits and hinders corporate accountability for environmental harms.

While the role of offshore jurisdictions in tax avoidance and financial secrecy has been extensively studied, their contribution to environmental degradation and the fossil fuel industry remains underexplored. In a recent publication, we address this gap by framing secrecy jurisdictions as regulatory havens. These havens facilitate the avoidance of financial, legal, and political liabilities central to environmental protection.

It is bitterly ironic that the Caribbean—the place where the key fossil fuel offshore jurisdictions facilitate the extraction of carbon profits—is the region that is most exposed to the devastation wreaked by climate change manifesting as hurricanes, rising sea levels, and wholesale destruction of communities. In this regard, regulatory havens also sustain neocolonial power dynamics and systemic exploitation.