Stakeholder participation in municipal energy and climate planning – experiences from Sweden

Abstract

This article analyses the factors influencing stakeholder participation in municipal energy and climate planning, together with stakeholder experiences of participation in such processes. The article presents findings from a survey of 60 Swedish municipalities and detailed case studies of energy and climate planning in five Swedish municipalities to explore which stakeholders are involved, how and why they are involved, and the impacts of participation on both stakeholder experiences. The results of this study provide insight into the role of stakeholders in municipal energy and climate planning. The study proceeds as follows: the Introduction is followed by a discussion of theoretical perspectives on stakeholder participation and energy and climate planning. The Methods used to conduct the study are presented, followed by Results and Analysis. In the subsequent Discussion, the authors propose a conceptual approach that may assist municipalities in development of energy and climate strategies. The Analysis and Discussion inform Conclusions in which the authors advocate early and active stakeholder engagement in energy and climate strategy planning and emphasise the possible utility of their conceptual approach in supporting stakeholder participation.

Keywords:

• energy and climate strategies
• municipalities
• participation
• stakeholders

Notes

1. The Sustainable Municipality (Uthållig kommun) programme aims to support municipalities in developing sustainable energy systems through knowledge diffusion, provision of networking support, and with financial support to coordination projects within and between municipalities. Phase II of the programme ran during the period 2008–2011.

2. Swedish municipalities are classified according to size and other characteristics by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR). A simplified definition, based upon this system, is used in this article. Municipalities A and B are considered “large” municipalities with over 100,000 residents; Municipality C is a “medium”-sized municipality with a population of between 25,000 and 100,000 residents; and Municipalities D and E are “small” municipalities, with populations of less than 25,000. For more information, see Fenton et al. (forthcoming).

3. Fenton et al. (forthcoming) is an article on the organisational form of the processes in the five municipalities. This was submitted to a special issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production, following a conference presentation. The paper makes use of different empirical material and theoretical perspectives to that presented in this paper. Gustafsson et al. (2013) is a synthesis report and Fenton et al. (2012) is a case-study report. Both were submitted to the Swedish Energy Agency and are non-peer-reviewed publications, primarily serving to present the results to the funding agency and stakeholders. A substantial volume of empirical data was collected in the project and these references provide an opportunity for readers to study other material from the project in more detail.

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to thank the Swedish Energy Agency for their support and funding of the research project.