This is the blog for the research project “The Emergence of Municipal-led Green Financialisation of Urban Development in Sweden”, funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas.
Background
How to raise the large amount of capital needed for making the necessary public investments to adapt new and existing built environments, urban technologies, and infrastructures to climate change is a major challenge that governments face today. It concerns not the least local governments, which have primary authority and responsibility for urban development. To meet this challenge, local governments are now developing innovative strategies to access financial markets to fund green transition projects. By issuing so-called Green Municipal Bonds for adaptation projects, Swedish municipalities have taken a frontrunner position in this trend. Previous research has indicated that while it is unclear to what extent actual green-financed projects contribute to a systemic sustainability shift, little concern has been paid to the risk of unequal redistributive outcomes.
The purpose of the research project
This research project studies the repercussions of municipal-led financialization of green urban development and asks how the dependence on financial capital for local green investments impacts, and potentially reorients, the local welfare state in Sweden. It examines the use of Green Municipal Bonds in Sweden and departs from three theoretical strands: local state theory, urban entrepreneurialism, and financialization of urban development.
The research project runs from 2023 to 2025.
Municipal Financialisation of Green Urban Development 