Central banking in the age of the climate crisis : is Sweden's Riksbank in the process of adopting a proactive approach to greening monetary policy?

In 2019, Sweden's central bank, the Riksbank, sold carbon-heavy bonds from its foreign exchange reserves. This act led to the Riksbank being labelled a frontrunner in what has been referred to as green central banking (GCB). The growing interest in proactive central banking has led to a wealth of information on how central banks can act in the age of climate change. In this article, we put the Riksbank to the test using the options set out by leading voices within GCB. The lens of governmentality, with its Foucauldian foundations, allows the political rationalities, technologies and programmes of government that underpin analysis of the Riksbank to be understood. The Riksbank has been characterised as a progressive, 'front-running' central bank, having sold carbon-intensive bonds in its corporate bond portfolio. The mixed methodological approach of a systematic discourse analysis, supplemented by expert interviews, found that the Riksbank has only very recently problematised climate change as a related feature of financial (in)stability, and therefore as a factor to be considered when protecting the mandate of a central bank. The analysis also revealed that the Riksbank is acting within what may more appropriately be termed the infant stages of greening its monetary policies, suggesting that it does not in fact deserve the label of 'front runner'.