The Nordic region aims to become the most sustainable region in the world in 2030, but as shown in the report
Nordic Stocktake – Pathways to Climate Neutrality (Lind et al. 2023) prepared for COP28, the Nordics all need to accelerate their green transitions to reach (territorial) climate neutrality and inspire global action.
This need for rapid decarbonization and deep transformation across all sectors challenges societies and citizens and their ability to change. Acceleration of the transformation necessitates more rapid deployment of renewable energy and new or stricter policy instruments, yet these changes are already being widely challenged in the Nordics. Due to local and national protests against wind power development and fuel taxation in particular, the concept of social acceptance has gained focus lately, both internationally and in the Nordics.
Opposition to the green transition played a large role in the lead-up to elections in many European countries as well as the European elections in 2024. With farmers protesting in the streets in major European cities, many countries and European politicians dampened their support for green transition initiatives.
The Nordic Council of Ministers commissioned the organizations CONCITO (Denmark), CICERO (Norway) & Tyrsky Consulting (Finland) to carry out the project “Social acceptance as a prerequisite for the green transition” to gain a deeper understanding of social acceptance issues across the Nordic countries.
The project has explored the role of social acceptance when establishing wind energy projects and increasing fuel prices in the Nordic countries, with specific focus on identifying effective strategies and policy initiatives that address, mitigate and/or increase social acceptance. Across the region, lack of acceptance has been a major reason that renewable energy projects have been stopped or delayed, and why many politicians are reluctant to use fuel taxation as a tool to reduce emissions.
1.1 Reader’s guide
This report looks at two green transition cases that are particularly relevant in relation to issues of social acceptance: wind power and fuel taxes. The wind power case illustrates issues with social acceptance primarily at the local level, while the fuel tax case illustrates issues with social acceptance primarily at the national level.
The main parts of the report focus on experiences from Denmark, Norway, and Finland (with references to, and examples from, the other Nordic countries where applicable and relevant). First, we introduce and explain the concept of “social acceptance”, giving an overview of main factors behind social acceptance and summarizing the status of social acceptance across the Nordic region with emphasis on wind power and fuel tax (
Chapter 2). We then present the wind power case and the status, challenges, and policy experiences with social acceptance across the Nordic region (
Chapter 3). Similarly,
Chapter 4 contains the status, challenges, and policy experiences with social acceptance for fuel taxation across the Nordic region. Finally, we conclude and summarize the main lessons learned in
Chapter 5. These should be shared across the Nordic countries to properly address (the lack of) social acceptance of green transition initiatives such as wind power and fuel price increases.
1.2 Approach
This report is primarily based on existing literature on social acceptance, focusing on studies concerning wind power and (fuel) taxes. The findings from the literature are complemented with insights from expert interviews and two online workshops with topic experts from Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden. The main purpose of the workshops was to gain a broader perspective and validate the project findings with insights and perspectives from across the Nordic region.
The wind power workshop included participants from the Reindeer Herders' Association Finland, University of Eastern Finland, the Swedish Wind Energy Association, KTH Royal Institute of Technology Sweden, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation, European Energy, Democracy X, the Danish Energy Agency, the Danish Climate Council, CICERO, and Tyrsky Consulting.
In relation to the wind power workshop, it is worth noting how the process itself validates some of the findings related to stakeholder involvement (see
section 3.2.2.). The invitation was sent to a wide variety of stakeholders, including academia, government, industry and non-governmental organizations representing environmental, local communities and anti-wind organizations. Even though the workshop did attract a diverse group of attendees, an anti-wind organization refused to attend, since they do not believe that the views of those opposing wind power would have been considered and they did not trust their participation would yield any useful results. This might be the case with other organizations also not participating, and thus both limiting the results of the workshop, but also validating the findings as such, and the need for improved stakeholder participation processes.
The fuel tax workshop included participants from Luleå University of Technology, Umeå University, University of Gothenburg, Lund University, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation, Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Danish Climate Council, Danish Economic Council of the Labor Movement, the Federation of Danish Motorists (FDM), the Icelandic Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, CONCITO, CICERO, and Tyrsky Consulting.
We thank the workshop participants for their time and insights. We do note, however, that the participants and their organizations have had no further part in the project, e.g. in writing this report. Opinions expressed herein, findings, etc., are the sole responsibility of the authors.
Furthermore, the project builds on other work on social acceptance and just transition funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, notably the “Not Just a Green Transition” project (NJUST) that has been focusing on how to best support populations vulnerable to, and impacted by, climate change and climate change mitigation policies. The project launched its Nordic Toolbox for a Just Green Transition on November 5
th 2024. A range of the elements and recommendations in the toolbox apply to, and are relevant for, this project as well. These are mentioned and linked to in
Chapter 5.