As cities worldwide increasingly adopt commitments towards climate justice, questions remain about the ways that city governments will be able to fund more just climate efforts. While the use of novel debt financing schemes has been examined in the literature for its justice implications, scholars have rarely interrogated how the more mundane tools and practices of municipal finance can be applied to enable more just urban transitions. Here, we use the USA as a case study to analyse the impacts of climate change and climate action on municipal budgets and to examine how cities are adapting their financial tools and practices to advance climate action and climate justice efforts. We employ a mixed-methods research design that combines 34 expert interviews with a systematic content analysis of municipal budgets from 15 US cities of different sizes. We find that both climate change and climate action can contribute to cities’ fiscal vulnerability by imposing additional expenditures and/or reducing municipal revenues. While most cities lack transparency about their investments in climate action and climate justice, some city governments are implementing ordinary innovations that embed climate and justice criteria into budgetary practices and funding tools. These ordinary innovations reveal that cities are beginning to reimagine municipal finance in the service of more just climate futures.

中文翻译：

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气候变化和市政金融：普通创新，公正的城市转型


随着世界各地的城市越来越多地做出气候正义的承诺，城市政府如何能够为更公正的气候努力提供资金仍然存在疑问。虽然文献中已经研究了使用新型债务融资计划的司法含义，但学者们很少质疑如何应用更平凡的市政融资工具和实践来实现更公正的城市转型。在这里，我们以美国为案例研究，分析气候变化和气候行动对市政预算的影响，并研究城市如何调整其金融工具和实践，以推进气候行动和气候正义工作。我们采用混合方法研究设计，将 34 次专家访谈与对来自 15 个不同规模的美国城市的市政预算的系统内容分析相结合。我们发现，气候变化和气候行动都会通过增加额外支出和/或减少市政收入来加剧城市的财政脆弱性。虽然大多数城市在气候行动和气候正义方面的投资缺乏透明度，但一些城市政府正在实施普通创新，将气候和正义标准纳入预算实践和融资工具。这些普通的创新表明，城市开始重新构想市政金融，为更公正的气候未来服务。