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With a fast rise in large-scale wind power development in Sweden and other countries in recent years, issues related to energy justice generally and distributional justice specifically have become concerns in windmill siting. Some research, for instance, has indicated that it is easier to build windmills in economically marginalized communities. The evidence for this, however, is still limited. Thus, this study aims to statistically evaluate the extent to which the decisions to approve or reject windmill proposals in Sweden can be explained by factors related to the socio-economic characteristics of people living in the areas surrounding windmill sites. The study is based on an odds ratio analysis of decisions on all windmill proposals in Sweden, in which georeferenced socio-economic data on an individual level for all inhabitants within 3 and 10 km of the windmill sites are studied. The results show skewness in the distribution of windmills, with a higher likelihood of rejection in areas with more highly educated people and people working in the private sector, compared to a higher likelihood of approval in areas with more unemployed people. This skewness, while not necessarily unjust, warrants further policy and research attention to distributional justice issues when developing wind power.

This thesis analysis the planning process for large-scale wind power development in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The aim is to explore the emerging power relations and socio-economic dynamics of the negotiation, planning and realization of this new development. The thesis employs an energy justice framework to capture the opportunities different stakeholders have to take part in and influence wind power development processes (‘procedural justice’), and how the potential benefits and burdens of wind power development are divided between stakeholders (‘distributional justice’). The study’s setup is an embedded sequential mixed methods research design, which includes analysis of policy documents, in-dept interviews, observations, as well as register based population data.

The thesis shows how power relations on both a structural level and an actor level are used to exert power and influence over the planning process for wind power development. On a structural level, the results indicate that transformations in EU directives and national planning laws and guidelines in Finland, Norway and Sweden in recent years have been more focused on speed and efficiency in planning processes than on legitimacy issues. The changes that have been implemented seem to point to diminishing opportunities for broad participation and debate in wind power planning processes, in favour of more top-down processes with a specific, sectoral focus on developing wind power. On the actor level, perceived improper behaviour by different actors within the planning process can further limit the possibilities for participation. People refrain from participating in planning processes, for instance, if they feel that they are treated disrespectfully or if there have occurred procedural errors that undermine the legitimacy of the formal planning process. However, participation in formal planning processes is not the only way to influence planning processes. There are a number of more informal channels, such as using the media or the Internet, lobbying, or rallying local support, that can and have been used by stakeholders to tap into the formal planning process to try to affect its outcomes. Such informal activities have a considerable spatial and scalar reach, the importance of which is that stakeholders utilizing such measures have the possibility to affect not only the local wind power project under debate, but also developments in other places and attitudes towards wind power more generally.

As concerns distributional issues, the results of the thesis show that the evidence of distributional inequality concerning wind power development on the national scale in Sweden is not very strong; but if such inequalities exist, there are possibilities to redistribute the benefits from wind power to those who are burdened by the developments. Distributional injustice related to wind power development is thus not an evident problem, generally speaking, in Sweden today. However, if this state is to remain, procedural aspects related to the continued development of wind power need to be kept in mind, as procedural and distributional inequalities are intimately related. Of specific concern is the need to address formal and informal procedures that marginalize stakeholder participation in planning processes, but it is equally important to also consider who is to be included in or excluded from negotiations and the distribution of local economic benefits connected to specific wind power projects.

Abstract In land-use planning processes there often exists a tension between, on the one hand, making efforts to increase the democratic legitimacy of the process and, on the other, ensuring efficiency in the procedures. This is not least relevant in the case of large-scale wind power where development decisions balance between the need to safe-guard local self-determination and the urgency of mitigating climate change. This paper investigates how the issue of legitimacy versus efficiency is managed within the national planning systems of Finland, Norway and Sweden when faced with the expansion of wind power and how the national strategies for wind power planning are perceived by different stakeholders. As the EU Renewable Energy Directives set the conditions for national policy in the field, the empirical work starts with an examination of these documents before moving on to a comparison of the national planning and permitting processes. The results show that the development of wind power has been moving planning procedures away from more inclusive planning methods in favour of more top-down and streamlined ones.

The goal of nature conservation is often implemented on productive forest land largely by means of forest certification a market-driven, voluntary system of third-party verification of the fulfilment of specific goals. This study assesses how certification requirements are being implemented in various organisations in the forest sector at various levels, and the problems and opportunities identified at each level in order to implement the requirements of the standard. Based on interviews with 34 stakeholders in Sweden, the study demonstrates that forest certification is a communication issue: it places great demands on communication or "information logistics" between different parts of the felling and forest management chain, from the top management to the contractor in the field. Integration with environmental performance systems, clarity in the division of responsibility, formalisation of requirements for forest planning and further integration of a culture of continuous improvement and internal reporting could support implementation of the certification system.

Working with sustainability goals at the local level places large requirements on developing and integrating priorities within the budgeting and organization of local government. This study reviews how selected Swedish municipalities have dealt with developing local sustainability processes, in particular in regard to the Aalborg Declaration commitments. The study highlights difficulties, including the lack of funding and staff time for clearly relating to outside sustainability documents and strategies. It also focuses on the requirement for dedicated resources to development, prioritization and follow-up of sustainability goals, especially in smaller municipalities.

Under 2008-2010 samverkade sex kommuner i Umeåregionen ("Hållbara Umeåregionen") runt försök att genomföra Ålborgåtagandena om hållbar utveckling – en process som kommunerna och kommunförbundet inbjudit forskning om. Inom ramen för projektet har de sex kommunerna antagit lokala hållbarhetsstrategier med kommunvisa prioriteringar. Dessa prioriteringar diskuterades inom Umeåregionssamarbetet för att eventuellt samordnas och för att nå prioriteringar som ses som lämpliga både i individuella kommuner och i regionen som helhet. Förutom arbetet på kommunal nivå och inom samarbetet existerar också regionala mål i Västerbottens län samt inom den privata sektorn (Tillväxtalliansen).

Sammanvägningen och prioriteringen av hållbarhetsmål är komplex både i termer av vilka aktörer som ska ingå och vilka roller dessa tar, samt genom arbetet med de breda sociala, ekonomiska och miljömässiga mål som Ålborgåtagandena ställer. Detta möjliggör ett stort antal olika prioriteringar, med olika nivå av regionalisering av beslut, där även andra teoretiska och praktiska kriterier för hållbarhet kan spela in.

Målet med den här rapporten är att undersöka och beskriva

regionens och kommunernas förutsättningar samt arbete med Ålborgåtagandena inom Hållbara Umeåregionsprocessen.

Vilka prioriteringsdokument existerar på regional samt kommunal nivå angående hållbarhetsfrågor?

Vilka prioriteringar inom hållbarhetsarbete utvecklades under Hållbara Umeåregionsprojektet?

Studien beskriver därmed ett komplext fall av regionalt arbete med hållbar utveckling i praktiken. Rapporten beskriver existerande mål och prioriteringar i olika dokument på regionala nivåer, kommunal nivå och slutligen under Ålborgsamarbetet. 

Research suggests that efforts to facilitate wind power development often include strategies that marginalize the participation of local oppositional interest groups in planning processes. The argument in this article is that such strategies are misguided as they move planning debates to less transparent, legitimate and predictable arenas, and as they potentially can impede wind power development. The argument is built through a theoretical and empirical exploration of how local oppositional interest groups, formally and informally, can participate in and influence wind power planning processes. The study shows that these groups engage in formal planning procedures when possible, but when they feel excluded from such procedures they find informal ways to bypass and influence the formal process, such as lobbying and networking. Importantly, the empirical results show that these informal activities often have a considerable scalar and spatial scope, involving the national and international engagement of other oppositional groups and of authorities that would normally not be involved in local planning processes. Through these wide-ranging activities, local disputes become part of a broader contestation of wind power, thus putting pressure on authorities to restrict wind power development not only in the local context, but potentially also on a policy level.