Green bonds have become very popular, and Sweden is leading the market. However, the country lags behind in other sustainability-related or social bonds.
Social bonds are bonds where the proceeds are destined for projects with social outcomes such as education or livelihood creation, while sustainable bonds are bonds where the proceeds support projects with both environmental and social sustainability-related outcomes, such as affordable, energy-efficient housing or sustainable value chain creation.
The Stockholm Sustainable Finance Centre has recognized a growing interest among financial actors in Sweden in such bonds. This report is a scoping study focused on assessing best practice in the issuance of municipal sustainability-related bonds. This work will feed into a larger project examining how financial actors and cities can best collaborate to finance the achievement of the sustainability-related goals of Swedish cities.