Financial instruments for investing in sustainable cities

Substantial financial investments are needed to create sustainable cities. Preliminary estimates suggest the total funding needed to reach climate neutrality in nine selected Swedish cities is at least 19 271 SEK per capita per year until 2030. Expanding these findings to the whole of Sweden would amount to 200 billion SEK per year.

Building on two previous fact sheets — one exploring practical approaches cities can use to become more sustainable and another assessing the financial position of Swedish municipal governments — this fact sheet examines how municipal governments can fund investments and the types of financial instruments they can use to do this. The fact sheet also provides examples and insights from the nine cities in focus.

The Viable Cities’ Finance project assesses what climate neutrality means for nine cities in Sweden, how much achieving this goal would cost and how it can be funded. It focuses on nine Swedish cities: Gothenburg, Linköping, Lund, Malmö, Nacka, Västerås, Vellinge, Örebro and Östersund. These cities were selected for the project as they have issued a green bond, a labelled bond where the proceeds are designated for green investments and the research project partly focuses on the role of external financing in achieving Agenda 2030. Together, these municipalities make up 17% of the total Swedish population.