This SSE Working Paper examines the role that Swedish institutional investors might play in the development of a Swedish market for sustainability-related and socially labelled bonds.
Engagement by the financial sector is seen as a necessity for society’s ability to cope with the growing stress on welfare systems and the demands presented in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
It makes recommendations on how to help the socially labelled bond-market achieve take-off, such as enhancing the development of financial vehicles, private as well as government-sponsored, and speeding up the work with the development of standardized metrics. In addition, institutional investors need to step up, and be braver than they are currently – at least if they claim to take all the SDGs seriously. A key message to the issuers is not to ask for too much in relation to risk-sharing – socially labelled bonds must not be too complex in structure or too complicated to evaluate for investors.