In recent years, wind power has become increasingly cost-competitive and offers prospects for Sweden to phase out fossil fuels from the energy system. Many wind power projects are stalled, however, due to local opposition.
In an article recently published in the journal Energy Research and Social Science, Daniel Lindvall at Uppsala University and Patrik Sörqvist and Stephan Barthel at Gävle University explored if different types of financial compensation or democratic participation can enhance wind power acceptance, using a large-scale survey in Sweden. The study confirms that Swedes are very supportive of wind power. Nearly 75 percent of the respondents support the development of onshore wind farms. Still, one in four Swedes would not like to have wind turbines built near their homes.
The most effective policy option on general attitudes is to require wind power developers to pay property taxes to the host municipality. Those who are generally negative to wind power prefer, however, to receive personal financial compensation. While the results suggest that compensation could help mitigate resistance, negative attitudes towards wind power are primarily driven by ideological beliefs, low environmental concern, and a lack of political and governmental trust. Regardless of the type of compensation offered, individuals who express strong conservative ideological views (TAN-values) will most likely continue to resist wind power development.
The findings demonstrate that the proposals presented by Swedish government inquiry in 2023, Värdet av vinden, might help to enhance the support for wind power. Still, the article also demonstrates that there is no a silver bullet against negative attitudes to wind power.
The research was conducted within the research project Fairtrans, financed by Formas and Mistra.
Democracy put in question by greenhouse gas emissions
Democratic governments worldwide fail to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. As a result, a discussion has emerged on the capacity of democracies to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some argue that democracies are unfit to tackle challenges of climate change as democratic decision-making is restricted in time and space by the election cycles and the geographic constraints of the nation state. Interest groups and so-called ‘veto players’ have captured the policy process, while the electorate lacks scientific literacy. These claims have led a few climate scientists to suggest that democracy should be restricted or even put on hold. Others counter that the problem is not democracy as such, but rather the incapacity of existing liberal democratic institutions to channel the interests of citizens. Hence, there is a need to deepen and advance democracy.
To bring clarity to these issues, Lindvall and Karlsson reviewed 72 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters published over the last two decades. The chosen articles reported correlation analyses between indicators of democracy and climate policy performances. Their review confirms that democracies tend to generate better climate policy outputs than autocracies, in terms of adoption of policies, laws and regulations. However, they find weak empirical evidence for an association between democratic development and CO2 emission reductions.
Corruption and income inequalities foster carbon intense economic growth
A reason for the unconvincing performance of democracies is the correlation between economic growth and democratization. Most studies suggest that citizens can use democracy to alleviate the carbon impact of growth. However, this conclusion is only significant in high-income countries with low-corruption. In developing countries with rapid growth, democratic qualities do not seem to have any noteworthy effect on the reduction of growth-generated emissions. A major quest for humanity is thus to find solutions to combat poverty and in parallel advance and sustain human freedom, without carbon-intensive economic development.
Income inequality is another factor that can generate both higher emissions and undermine the capacity of democracy to deliver effective climate polices. Citizens in countries with high levels of income inequality tend to oppose emission reduction policies. They believe that costs for such measures will be unfairly distributed. Furthermore, high income earners have extremely carbon-intensive lifestyles and may be unwilling to support policies that would restrain their lifestyle.
Fossil fuel interests can weaken climate policy performance
A third factor explaining the underperformance of democracies is institutional capacity and corruption. Democracies suffering from corruption and weak state institutions can present ambitious climate policies. However, they tend to implement such policies poorly. The article highlights in this context that corruption and policy capture are often caused by fossil fuel interests, symptoms associated with the so-called ‘rentier effects’. Fossil fuel extraction tend accordingly to negatively influence both institutional capacity, democratic qualities and climate policy performance.
Synergy of renewable technologies and democracy has potential
Lindvall and Karlsson conclude accordingly that with deployment of renewable energy solutions, economic activities can increasingly be disconnected from fossil fuel dependence. This reduces the political influence of the fossil fuel industry. This process could also enhance the capacity of democracies to accelerate the energy transition and reduce emission levels. Policies aiming at combating corruption and accomplishing a fairer wealth distribution, could also help to unleash the transformative capacity of democracy towards a low-carbon future.
None of the studies identified in the review provides any evidence that would suggest that autocratic regimes perform better than democracies. To conclude, the insufficient climate policy performance of present democracies should rather be seen as an argument to vitalize and strengthen democracy than to restrict it.
The article was developed as a part of the Formas funded research project Wicked Problem Governance and the Formas and Mistra funded research project Fairtrans.
