Climate change and its impacts are currently affecting countries all around the world. Sweden is facing an increased risk of landslides, floods and a rising sea level that will cause major damage to infrastructure in the future. Sustainable Development Goal number 13 aims to mitigate these risks and others by strengthening different climate adaptation systems and reducing human impact on the environment. The overall purpose of this study was to investigate Sweden’s commitment to goal 13 and review the progress so far. In addition, it aimed to identify what national climate initiatives are in place and how integrated the goal is at the local level. Through official documents from the Swedish government and the United Nations, scientific research articles, and interviews with involved actors at the local level, a detailed overview of Sweden’s work on sustainable development goal 13 was produced. The research showed that Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goal 13 are well integrated in the different levels of governance, and recent initiatives are leading Sweden in the right direction to reaching the different targets set by the goal. However, certain areas within Sweden’s climate work seem to still lack proper guidance and will require changes in the near future if more progress is to be made. Consumption-based emissions produced outside of Sweden’s borders remain high, a specific national climate scenario has not been elaborated and municipalities sometimes appear to lack the necessary resources and support to effectively plan for climate change. In addition, it became apparent that the sub targets for goal number 13 in some cases did not have clear indicators. This ultimately limited to what extent Sweden’s progress could be identified and measured with respect to these targets. / Klimatförändringen påverkar för närvarande länder runt om hela världen. Sverige står inför en ökad risk för jordskred, översvämningar och en stigande havsnivå som kommer att orsaka stora skador på infrastrukturen i framtiden. Mål 13 för hållbar utveckling siktar på att mildra konsekvenserna genom att stärka olika klimatanpassningssystem och minska människors påverkan på miljön. Det övergripande syftet med denna studie var att undersöka Sveriges engagemang för mål 13 och framstegen hittills. Dessutom skulle studien identifiera vilka nationella klimatinitiativ som fanns och hur integrerat mål 13 var på lokal nivå. Genom officiella dokument från den svenska regeringen och FN, vetenskapliga forskningsartiklar, och intervjuer med involverade aktörer på lokal nivå, producerades en detaljerad översikt av Sveriges arbete med hållbarhetsmål 13. Forskningen visade att Agenda 2030 och mål 13 är väl integrerade i de olika nivåerna. Med de initiativ som nyligen genomförts verkar Sverige vara på väg i rätt riktning för att uppnå de olika delmålen under hållbarhetsmål 13. Vissa områden inom Sveriges klimatarbete förefaller dock fortfarande sakna lämplig vägledning och kan komma att kräva förändringar inom en snar framtid om mer framsteg ska kunna uppnås. Konsumtionsbaserade utsläpp producerade utanför Sveriges gränser är fortfarande höga, ett specifikt nationellt klimatscenario har inte utarbetats och kommuner anser sig ibland sakna nödvändiga resurser och stöd för att effektivt planera för klimatförändringar. Dessutom försvårades arbetet på lokal nivå av att delmålen för mål nummer 13 i vissa fall inte hade tydliga indikatorer. Detta begränsade i slutändan i vilken utsträckning Sveriges framsteg kunde identifieras och mätas med avseende på dessa mål.

This thesis is a theory consuming case study that aims to examine how the Council of the European Union voted in matters regarding the environment between 2015 and 2019 in order to begin the implementation of the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goal number 13. Moreover, the thesis further examines the impact of the Council’s voting results on the European integration process by using rational choice institutionalism and three explanatory factors; ideology, institutional factors and economical position in the EU. The findings of the thesis show that the member states in the EU voted diversely and that only four member states constantly voted yes throughout 2015 to 2019. Despite the diversity in voting, the factors and the theory utilised here helped explain why it is unlikely that disintegration would occur. As a result, it is clear that the European integration process will continue even though the voting results of the Council could impact further integration or even disintegration due to the member states’ various preferences. The future of European integration thus continues to be uncertain.

This paper examines current and suggested iterations of the climate finance architecture and potential risks in capital generation and delivery. Which is achieved via the construction of a literature review which aims to capture the main actors involved in the climate finance architecture. This is then contrasted to a post-keynesian and development economics synthesized framework focusing on liquidity preference, asymmetrical relationships and Minskyan financial instability. Utilizing data on current accounts, private capital flow instability and reserve asset accumulation we are able to show the explanatory power of our synthesized framework in explaining global capital imbalances and its impact on global financial flows and the impact on middle and low income countries. Using the insights gathered from our synthesized framework we then contrast it to the literature review, examining it for observable limitations in capital generation and delivery. In doing so a couple of things are noted, there are significant points of contention relating to capital generation and delivery in the climate finance architecture, potentially resulting in volatile asset prices and a negative impact on effective climate finance. Simultaneously it’s observed that climate finance is not catalytical for financial instability but a growing dependency and intertwining with conventional private financial flows may result in bouts of greater financial instability of climate finance assets. Lastly the paper affirms that there is a need to further examine the role and function of blended finance mechanisms.