Paradoxes of Norway’s energy transition: controversies and justice

ABSTRACT

Norway exemplifies a number of paradoxes in relation to the just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy provision. We investigate these paradoxes by focusing on key controversies from the oil and gas sector and onshore wind power. Despite the widespread interest in avoiding conflict and increasing public acceptance, this article sees controversies as useful sites for uncovering justice issues in possible transition pathways. The controversies reveal competing interpretations of just transition amidst an inadequate cross-cutting policy response. Conventional solutions for restructuring petro-maritime industries involve taking controversies out of sight from the public and internalizing the issue of just transition to the sector’s needs. This achieves only shallow engagement with broader society regarding the scope of societal transition needed to meet climate policies. Controversies around onshore wind installations are on the doorsteps of communities themselves and call attention to the difficult social aspects of transition that require a much broader public debate and policy response. We conclude that just transition should not be interpreted sectorally in competing energy futures but rather should infiltrate both the fossil and renewables sides of the Norwegian energy provision paradox.

Key policy insights

• Policies must take stock of controversies and acknowledge and unravel them to understand justice issues rather than seek to minimize them for political expedience.

• Just transition policies should not be limited to directly affected sectors and locations to minimize controversies but should reach broader aspects of society to enable the deepest scope of transition (from the industrial sector to community and society).

• Just development of renewable energy in Norway requires consideration of procedural, distributional, recognition and restorative aspects of energy development.

• Energy policy targets need to be both long-term and inclusive.

• More attention is needed to the oil and gas supply-side and energy demand reduction to connect the energy transition with ambitious climate policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Just transition
• energy transition
• paradoxes
• controversies
• oil and gas
• wind energy

Acknowledgements:

The authors wish to thank the editors and three anonymous reviewers for constructive feedback that greatly helped improve the article. We also acknowledge useful comments received at the 3rd International Conference on Energy Research & Social Science 2022, and the 9th Nordic Geographers Meeting 2022.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Research Council of Norway, the Norwegian Centre for Energy Transition Strategies – FME NTRANS 2019–2027 (grant number 296205).