Abstract
Implementing climate policies and programmes in cities requires substantial investments that inevitably entangle climate action with urban climate finance—the mechanisms and practices city governments use to pay for climate efforts. Here we use US cities as a case study to examine how climate finance impacts, and is impacted by, the pursuit of urban climate action and climate justice. Drawing on 34 expert interviews, we show how municipal financial decisions and budgetary practices are shaping how, when and for whom cities are responding to climate change. We demonstrate how public spending decisions are intertwined with the logics of debt financing and examine the impacts of these relationships on cities’ climate investments. We showcase the structuring impacts of finance on climate action and the built environment, and we introduce pathways through which climate and justice considerations are already being integrated into, and potentially transforming, municipal finance in the United States.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Data availability
Interview transcripts and analysed interview data are not publicly available because they contain information that would compromise the research participants’ confidentiality and undermine the process of informed consent.
Code availability
No custom algorithms or code were used in the collection or analysis of the data. All interview data were analysed using Vivo 12 Pro software.
References
Fuhr, H., Hickmann, T. & Kern, K. The role of cities in multi-level climate governance: local climate policies and the 1.5 °C target. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustain. 30, 1–6 (2018).
Bulkeley, H. Climate changed urban futures: environmental politics in the Anthropocene city. Environ. Polit. 30, 266–284 (2021).
Cities and Climate Change: Global Report on Human Settlements 2011. Cities and Climate Change (UN Habitat, 2011).
Shi, L. et al. Roadmap towards justice in urban climate adaptation research. Nat. Clim. Change 6, 131–137 (2016).
Angelo, H. & Wachsmuth, D. Why does everyone think cities can save the planet? Urban Stud. 57, 2201–2221 (2020).
Bulkeley, H. Cities and the governing of climate change. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 35, 229–253 (2010).
Hsu, A. et al. Performance determinants show European cities are delivering on climate mitigation. Nat. Clim. Change 10, 1015–1022 (2020).
Negreiros, P. et al. The State of Cities Climate Finance Part 1: The Landscape of Urban Climate Finance (Climate Policy Initiative, 2021); https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/SCCF_PART1-FINAL-1.pdf
Chu, E. K. & Cannon, C. E. Equity, inclusion, and justice as criteria for decision-making on climate adaptation in cities. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustain. 51, 85–94 (2021).
Diezmartínez, C. V. & Short Gianotti, A. G. US cities increasingly integrate justice into climate planning and create policy tools for climate justice. Nat. Commun. 13, 5763 (2022).
Hughes, S. & Hoffmann, M. Just urban transitions: Toward a research agenda. WIREs Clim. Change 11, e640 (2020).
Cannon, C., Chu, E., Natekal, A. & Waaland, G. Translating and embedding equity-thinking into climate adaptation: an analysis of US cities. Reg. Environ. Change 23, 30 (2023).
Knuth, S. in Urban Climate Justice: Theory, Praxis, Resistance 66–88 (Univ. of Georgia Press, 2023).
Silver, J. in Urban Climate Justice: Theory, Praxis, Resistance 89–105 (Univ. of Georgia Press, 2023).
Davidson, K. & Gleeson, B. Interrogating urban climate leadership: toward a political ecology of the C40 network. Glob. Environ. Polit. 15, 21–38 (2015).
Bouteligier, S. Inequality in new global governance arrangements: the North–South divide in transnational municipal networks. Innov. Eur. J. Soc. Sci. Res. 26, 251–267 (2013).
Bracking, S. & Leffel, B. Climate finance governance: fit for purpose? WIREs Clim. Change 12, e709 (2021).
Bigger, P. & Webber, S. Green structural adjustment in the World Bank’s resilient city. Ann. Am. Assoc. Geogr. 111, 36–51 (2021).
Acuto, M. & Rayner, S. City networks: breaking gridlocks or forging (new) lock-ins? Int. Aff. 92, 1147–1166 (2016).
Bigger, P. & Millington, N. Getting soaked? Climate crisis, adaptation finance, and racialized austerity. Environ. Plan. E Nat. Space 3, 601–623 (2020).
Christophers, B. Risk capital: urban political ecology and entanglements of financial and environmental risk in Washington, D.C. Environ. Plan. E Nat. Space 1, 144–164 (2018).
Hadfield, P. & Coenen, L. Contemporary financial capitalism and sustainability transitions in urban built environments. Environ. Innov. Soc. Transit. 42, 285–300 (2022).
Hadfield, P. & Cook, N. Financing the low-carbon city: can local government leverage public finance to facilitate equitable decarbonisation? Urban Policy Res. 37, 13–29 (2019).
Shi, L. & Varuzzo, A. M. Surging seas, rising fiscal stress: exploring municipal fiscal vulnerability to climate change. Cities 100, 102658 (2020).
Long, J. Crisis capitalism and climate finance: the framing, monetizing, and orchestration of resilience-amidst-crisis. Polit. Gov. 9, 51–63 (2021).
Weikmans, R., Roberts, J. T. & Robinson, S. What counts as climate finance? Define urgently. Nature 588, 220 (2020).
Keenan, J. M., Chu, E. & Peterson, J. From funding to financing: perspectives shaping a research agenda for investment in urban climate adaptation. Int. J. Urban Sustain. Dev. 11, 297–308 (2019).
Cousins, J. J. & Hill, D. T. Green infrastructure, stormwater, and the financialization of municipal environmental governance. J. Environ. Policy Plan. 23, 581–598 (2021).
Cox, S. Inscriptions of resilience: bond ratings and the government of climate risk in Greater Miami, Florida. Environ. Plan. A 54, 295–310 (2022).
Karpf, A. & Mandel, A. The changing value of the ‘green’ label on the US municipal bond market. Nat. Clim. Change 8, 161–165 (2018).
Langley, P., Bridge, G., Bulkeley, H. & van Veelen, B. Decarbonizing capital: investment, divestment and the qualification of carbon assets. Econ. Soc. 50, 494–516 (2021).
Cox, S. Bonding out the future: tracing the politics of urban climate finance in Miami, Florida. J. Urban Aff. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2192941 (2023).
Long, J. & Rice, J. L. Climate urbanism: crisis, capitalism, and intervention. Urban Geogr. 42, 721–727 (2021).
Ponder, C. S. Spatializing the municipal bond market: urban resilience under racial capitalism. Ann. Am. Assoc. Geogr. 111, 2112–2129 (2021).
August, M. et al. Reimagining geographies of public finance. Prog. Hum. Geogr. 46, 527–548 (2022).
Robin, E. Rethinking the geographies of finance for urban climate action. Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. 47, 393–408 (2022).
Cox, S. in Urban Climate Justice: Theory, Praxis, Resistance 205–219 (Univ. of Georgia Press, 2023).
Taylor, Z. J. & Knuth, S. E. Financing ‘climate-proof’ housing? The premises and pitfalls of PACE finance in Florida. J. Urban Aff. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2247503 (2023).
Taylor, Z. J. & Aalbers, M. B. Climate gentrification: risk, rent, and restructuring in Greater Miami. Ann. Am. Assoc. Geogr. 112, 1685–1701 (2022).
Knuth, S. et al. Interrupted rhythms and uncertain futures: mortgage finance and the (spatio-) temporalities of climate breakdown. J. Urban Aff. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2229462 (2023).
Shi, L. et al. Can Florida’s coast survive its reliance on development? J. Am. Plann. Assoc. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2023.2249866 (2023).
Shi, L. & Moser, S. Transformative climate adaptation in the United States: trends and prospects. Science https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc8054 (2021).
Jenkins, D. The Bonds of Inequality: Debt and the Making of the American City (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2021).
Bridge, G., Bulkeley, H., Langley, P. & van Veelen, B. Pluralizing and problematizing carbon finance. Prog. Hum. Geogr. 44, 724–742 (2020).
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Climate Finance in the Negotiations https://unfccc.int/topics/climate-finance/the-big-picture/climate-finance-in-the-negotiations (2023).
Colenbrander, S., Dodman, D. & Mitlin, D. Using climate finance to advance climate justice: the politics and practice of channelling resources to the local level. Clim. Policy 18, 902–915 (2018).
Christophers, B., Bigger, P. & Johnson, L. Stretching scales? Risk and sociality in climate finance. Environ. Plan. A 52, 88–110 (2020).
Garschagen, M. & Doshi, D. Does funds-based adaptation finance reach the most vulnerable countries? Glob. Environ. Change 73, 102450 (2022).
Khan, M., Robinson, S.-A., Weikmans, R., Ciplet, D. & Roberts, J. T. Twenty-five years of adaptation finance through a climate justice lens. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02563-x (2019).
Barrett, S. Local level climate justice? Adaptation finance and vulnerability reduction. Glob. Environ. Change 23, 1819–1829 (2013).
Vinnari, E. M. & Näsi, S. Creative accrual accounting in the public sector: ‘milking’ water utilities to balance municipal budgets and accounts. Financ. Account. Manage. 24, 97–116 (2008).
Rubin, I. S. Municipal enterprises: exploring budgetary and political implications. Public Adm. Rev. 48, 542–550 (1988).
Parker, C., Scott, S. & Geddes, A. Snowball sampling. SAGE Res. Methods https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526421036831710 (2019).
Baxter, J. & Eyles, J. Evaluating qualitative research in social geography: establishing ‘rigour’ in interview analysis. Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. 22, 505–525 (1997).
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a Boston University Initiative on Cities Early Stage Urban Research Grant (C.V.D., A.G.S.G.), a Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability Fellowship (C.V.D.), a National Science Foundation grant (NSF 2314889, A.G.S.G.) and a National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) grant to Boston University (DGE 1735087, C.V.D.). We are grateful to all the anonymous experts who generously shared their time and knowledge for this research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
C.V.D. wrote the original draft, conceptualized the project, developed the methodology, collected and analysed data, and acquired funding. A.G.S.G. conceptualized the project, developed the methodology, acquired funding, reviewed and edited the paper, and supervised the project.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature Climate Change thanks Nicole Cook, David Gordon and Zac Taylor for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Appendix A. Sample interview script. Appendix B. Final coding protocol for interview transcripts.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Diezmartínez, C.V., Short Gianotti, A.G. Municipal finance shapes urban climate action and justice. Nat. Clim. Chang. 14, 247–252 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-01924-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-01924-4
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Political economy of just urban transition
Nature Climate Change (2024)
-
Implementing climate justice in Boston’s Building Performance Standard
Nature Cities (2024)
-
Operationalizing climate justice in the implementation of Boston’s Building Performance Standard
Nature Cities (2024)