Ordering the wind: how law and finance construct green development

Green development operates through a split legal architecture: binding arrangements secure capital mobility and stabilise revenue, while environmental and social commitments are organised through discretionary, procedural frameworks that absorb contestation without redistributing risk. This article reconstructs how that architecture consolidated through four interlocking moves—recasting development as investor-oriented enterprise; framing sustainability as growth-compatible; marketising environmental governance through pricing and performance techniques; and financialising implementation through de-risking, blended finance, and ESG classification. The argument is developed through the Lake Turkana Wind Power project in Kenya, a flagship renewable-energy investment promoted as a model of green growth and blended finance. Tracing how communal land is converted into leasehold collateral, how sovereign guarantees and offshore arbitration insulate revenue from domestic litigation, and how accountability is displaced through CSR and impact-investor exit, the article shows that LTWP's legal design is not a failure of green development, but a paradigmatic expression of its structural logic.