Contestation, contingency, and justice in the nordic low-carbon energy transition
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The five Nordic countries have aggressive climate and energy policies in place and have already emerged to be leaders in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Denmark is renowned for its pioneering use of wind energy, Finland and Sweden bioenergy, Norway hydroelectricity and Iceland geothermal energy. All countries aim to be virtually “fossil free” by 2050. This study explores the Nordic energy transition through the lens of three interconnected research questions: How are they doing it? What challenges exist? And what broader lessons result for energy policy? The study firstly investigates the pathways necessary for these five countries to achieve their low-carbon goals. It argues that a concerted effort must be made to (1) promote decentralized and renewable forms of electricity supply; (2) shift to more sustainable forms of transport; (3) further improve the energy efficiency of residential and commercial buildings; and (4) adopt carbon capture and storage technologies for industry. However, the section that follows emphasizes some of the empirical barriers the Nordic transition must confront, namely political contestation, technological contingency, and social justice and recognition concerns. The study concludes with implications for what such historical progress, and future transition pathways, mean for both energy researchers and energy planners.
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Nordic nations have traditionally been positioned at the top of various indicators in favor of EV diffusion, such as being able to afford EVs and pushing aggressive decarbonization agendas within the energy and transport sectors.
“The research is placed in a Nordic context as these nations have traditionally been positioned at the top various indicators in favor of EV diffusion (for example, that they can afford EVs, often considered an expensive technology), as well as being recognized for pushing aggressive decarbonization agendas within the energy and transport sectors”
From Understanding the socio-technical nexus of Nordic electric vehicle (EV) barriers: A qualitative discussion of range, price, charging and knowledge (2020) · cites this paper as Sovacool, 2017
The Introduction describes the Nordic countries as wealthy and their energy and climate policies as highly ambitious; §3.3, Transport, describes substantial transport-electrification goals (page numbers not supplied). But the paper does not rank the countries on indicators favoring EV diffusion or establish that consumers can afford EVs. Section 4.2 instead notes relatively slow EV diffusion across the region. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Sovacool, B. K.
- Affiliations
- University of Sussex (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Sovacool, Benjamin K.
- Venue
- Energy Policy
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-03
- Volume
- 102
- Pages
- 569-582
- ISSN
- 0301-4215 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2574034258
- Cited by
- 198
- References
- 58
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 5
- FWCI
- 10.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- erratum (2017-05-01)
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Energy Policy (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Sussex Research Online (University of Sussex) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Research Councils United Kingdom (RCUK) Energy Program (EP/K011790/1)
- Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF) Sapere Aude (4182-00033B)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Renewable Energy and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Energy › General Energy › Global Energy Security and Policy
- Keywords
- low-carbon transition, renewable energy, wind energy, bioenergy, hydropower, geothermal energy, sustainable transport, building energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage, political contestation, social justice, recognition, energy transition pathways
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