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Trots upprepade politiska utfästelser om att transportsystemet ska bli fossilfritt har dess omställning gått trögt. Det har länge funnits en påtaglig kontrast mellan visionerna för transportsystemets omställning och de faktiskt vidtagna åtgärderna. De dominerande förklaringarna till denna kontrast, liksom föreställningarna om vad som kan göras, har skiftat över tid och beroende på vilken regering som suttit vid makten. I grunden kretsar de emellertid alltid kring samma frågor: Hur väl rustat är det svenska planeringssystemet för att genomföra en fundamental omställning av transporterna? I vilken omfattning kräver transportsystemets omställning en mer djupgående förändring av samhället? Vilken roll bör stat och marknad ha i transportsystemets omställning? I denna bok skildrar vi hur den offentliga diskussionen om transportsystemet förändrats under de fyra olika regeringar som suttit vid makten mellan 2006-2022. Genom att följa formuleringen av politiska visioner i statliga utredningar och hur dessa visioner diskuterats i den offentliga debatten visar vi hur en period av utpräglat marknadsliberal politik utmanas av klimatkeynesianistiska idéer. Samtidigt har hela undersökningsperioden karakteriserats av betydande institutionella låsningar.

The paper traces a discursive shift in Swedish transport decarbonisation discourse, by which neoliberal hegemony has been increasingly challenged through the emergence of an eco-Keynesian discourse coalition encompassing trade unions, business and industry, and green and left-wing members of parliament. The investigation testifies to the importance of political ideas in effecting discursive change, and in restricting subject positions within discourses. The Swedish case is informative for transport decarbonisation in general for the tensions it harbours between classic Social Democratic industrial policy and neoliberalism, and between historical continuity and radical discontinuity. In particular, it reveals how the return to a specific historical idea of the state determines the subject positions of actors within the new discourse coalition.

The world’s agricultural production is declining due to severe loss of soil fertility through natural processes or because of human activities. Biochar has been identified as a potential soil amendment to regain its fertility and increase crop productivity. This study aimed to assess the effects of biochar on soil nutrients and crop yields in the southern highlands of Tanzania. Data were collected through key informant and household interviews, and from sampling of soils in coffee farms where biochar of maize cobs origin was incorporated at the rate of 3 t ha-1. Purposive sampling approach was deployed to identify the villages in which farmers have been incorporating biochar in farms. A total of 172 households, 30 key informants, and 12 top and subsoil samples were involved in this study. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS version 20, and excel spreadsheet was used for descriptive results and relationships. The findings revealed that biochar significantly increased soil pH, iron (Fe), organic carbon (OC), cation exchange capacity (CEC) and exchangeable bases (potassium-K, magnesium-Mg). T - tests showed significant increase of soil nutrients in biochar treated soils. In addition, biochar increased coffee and maize yields from 1 t ha-1 to 3 t ha-1., Funding: The funding for this research was provided by the Swedish Research Council [Grant No. 2016-06359] and Formas [Grant No. 2019-01973]., LUNETs

"Med begreppet 'kunskapscirkulation' vill Larsson Heidenblad konkretisera hur kunskapsprids mellan aktörer i samhället. Det aktörsnära perspektivet motiveras av författaren som en sorts medelväg mellan å ena sidan abstrakta, diskursteoretiska analyser och å andra sidan tematiskt snäva miljöhistoriska studier." Läs Simon Haikolas recension af boken Den gröna vändingen.

In contrast to its successful decarbonisation of the electricity system, Sweden has failed to achieve momentum in its attempts to decarbonise transport. This paper examines the reasons for this failure by investigating the discourse around investment in Swedish transport infrastructure. Our analysis focusses specifically on discussions about establishing high-speed rail (HSR) spanning 25 years. We identify three central discursive themes: the issue of financing, the role of the state in socio-technical change, and fatalism. We then trace these themes to storylines within the HSR discourse that each tell a story about good transport governance, informed by a specific interpretation of Swedish modernisation. Four storylines converge in a ‘‘deflationary’’ discourse coalition, characterised by ideas of sound finance and depoliticised governance, that reinforces material dependencies on existing transport infrastructure. A competing, ‘‘Weberian’’ discourse coalition is united through a contrasting storyline that instead highlights state capacity as evidenced by Swedish modernisation., Funding: Swedish Energy AgencySwedish Energy AgencyMaterials & Energy Research Center (MERC); Swedish Research CouncilSwedish Research CouncilEuropean Commission [48746-1]

Biochar may contribute to both agricultural productivity and atmospheric carbon dioxide removal. However, despite the many potential upsides of adding biochar to amend carbon-depleted soils in sub-Saharan Africa, deployment is largely lacking. This paper explores the socio-economic factors that can explain tendencies to avoid action. Based on a survey of 172 farming households, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions in the Mbeya and Songwe regions of Tanzania, which were targeted for a biochar aid program in 2014, several socio-economic drivers behind the continued use of biochar deployment were identified in this follow-up study. A key deployment driver was the increased crop yields, perceived to be the result of adding biochar to soils, increasing yields from 1 metric ton per hectare to 3 metric tons per hectare. Food security and family income were cited as the main reasons to engage in biochar production and use. Climate change mitigation and increased resilience were other key reasons that motivated adoption. In terms of socio-economic factors, farmers with low education and income, the majority being males aged 40–60 years, contributed to low adoption rates in the study area. Respondents often cited the alternative usage of biochar feedstocks, lack of government involvement or extension services, traditions, and farming customs as the main constraints limiting biochar deployment., Funding: Swedish Research CouncilSwedish Research CouncilEuropean Commission [2016-06359]; FormasSwedish Research Council Formas [2019-01973], LUNETs

This chapter analyses the history of opposition to large-scale hydropower in Sweden and reasons it succeed in using ethical arguments to stop further expansion of hydropower in the 1970s. It finds that framing of oppositional arguments, elite participation, the existence of nuclear power as a plausible energy alternative and a political opportunity in the form of parliamentary dynamics were prerequisites for its success.

Sweden and Finland have national goals to reach net negative greenhouse gas emissions before mid-century. Achieving these ambitious goals could employ negative emission technologies, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, but it is unclear how this technology could be realized in an energy transition. Sweden and Finland stand out for having a large share of substantial point source emissions of biogenic carbon dioxide, in the production of pulp, heat and power. In the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register, Sweden and Finland reported 64% and 51% biogenic emissions, respectively, in facilities emitting over 100 kt of carbon dioxide in 2017, while the corresponding collective figure for all European states in the database is 6%. This qualitative study highlights company actors’ perspectives on bioenergy with carbon capture and storage within a Nordic regional context and explores their perspective on emerging tensions in the energy transition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 of the 24 companies with the largest point sources of biogenic emissions. The results are framed around four emerging tensions regarding bioenergy with carbon capture and storage from companies’ perspectives in this study: (1) absence of reliable long-term policies; (2) limits to companies’ climate change responsibility; (3) technical trade-offs of carbon capture; and (4) lack of customer demands for negative emissions. According to most of the companies, it is technically feasible to capture carbon dioxide, but it could be a challenge to determine who is responsible to create a financially viable business case, to enact supporting policies, and to build transport and storage infrastructure. Company representatives argue that they already contribute to a sustainable society, therefore bioenergy with carbon capture and storage is not their priority without government collaboration. However, they are willing to contribute more and could have an increasing rol, QC 20201209

Paris Agreement-compatible emissions pathways produced by integrated assessment models (IAMs) often rely on large amounts of carbon dioxide removals, especially afforestation and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). These pathways feature prominently in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to the extent that the IAMs have been granted an interpretative privilege at the interface between climate science, economics, and policymaking. The privilege extends to and influences climate governance, including governance of BECCS. This paper contributes to recent debates about the role of the IPCC, and its framing of BECCS, at the science-policy interface. By analyzing all BECCS-related expert review comments and author responses on the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, the paper shows that boundary work influences the representation of BECCS by authors referring to: (1) a limited scope or capacity; (2) a restrictive mandate; (3) what constitutes legitimate science, and; (4) relativizing uncertainties. The responses to the review comments indicate a significant degree of compliance on behalf of the authors. Yet, the revisions do not seem to go to the heart of the unease that runs through many of the reviewer comments, i.e., that BECCS seems to be presented as a viable CDR technology at grand scale. While several revisions serve to clarify uncertainties surrounding BECCS, some fundamental aspects of the critique are deflected, through the boundary work identified. What the analysis reveals, beyond a dissatisfaction among many reviewers with the focus on integrated assessment modeling, the associated pathway literature, and analysis of BECCS, is a disagreement about how model results should be interpreted and communicated. While acknowledging the herculean task of the IPCC and the efforts to improve the pathway literature that the SR1.5 triggered within the IAM communities, we argue that the identified boundary work also, LUNETs

I detta kapitel försöker vi förklara hur förhoppningar, idéer och löften tillsammans skapade stora förväntningar på ett gruvprojekt i Pajala, ett demografiskt och ekonomiskt stagnerande samhälle ovanför polcirkeln, något som ledde till etableringen av en gruva som lades ned efter bara två års produktion. Syftet är att skapa en förståelse av hur de centrala aktörernas förväntningshorisonter formades av specifika intressen i förening med historiska föreställningar knutna till platsen. Särskilt intresse ägnas åt att analysera hur dessa förväntningar under en period förenades i en för de berörda aktörerna gemensam förväntningshorisont som drev projektet framåt. Vi visar också hur den gemensamma förväntningshorisonten upplöstes efter en likviditetskris i bolaget, vilket blottlade de avsevärda skillnaderna mellan de berörda aktörernas ståndpunkter, i samband med att de olika aktörerna återvände till sina utgångspositioner. Med andra ord undersöker kapitlet hur förväntningshorisonter formas kring storskalig, långsiktig och råvarubaserad industriproduktion i avfolkningsbygder, inom ramen för en ekonomi som i övrigt är inriktad på kortsiktig ekonomisk tillväxt, globala kapitalflöden och konsumtion.

In this paper we use a case of resistance towards a proposed limestone quarry in Sweden to raise certain theoretical points regarding environmental politicization. Departing from ideas about depoliticization and neoliberal environmental governance, we first analyze the case in terms of scaling-up of the local conflict through actor alliances, discourse coalitions and through the juridical process. We then discuss how this case may indicate effective ways to politicize areas that have been depoliticized through neoliberal environmental governance. Most particularly, the chosen case highlights how depoliticization may be reversed through the politicization of the very channels through which depoliticized forms of environmental governance occur, here the juridical, formalized and nominally neutral processes of environmental planning., Funding agencies: Swedish Research Council, Den svenska gruvpolitikens omvandling – aktörer, möjliga världar och kontroverser