This research project examines methods to unlock more local benefits from green transitions and how these can be supported and amplified.
The green transition affects Nordic countries, regions, and municipalities of different geographies in different ways. Ensuring a fairer distribution of the impacts and benefits of the green transition among local communities is key to reducing regional disparities. If green transition-related investments and industries mainly benefit the capital regions, it is almost impossible to overcome barriers.
Nordic countries have established various practices on mapping the impacts of green transition, as well as compensation schemes. There is however need to identify the current barriers hindering more communities to act on the green transition pathways that make sense to them – and a need to turn that to concrete, actionable knowledge about necessary steps forward.
Project focus
This project focuses on two case studies. The first is on agroecological symbioses – referring to initiatives that involve collaboration among agricultural producers, processors, other businesses, and consumers to create an integrated system. This represent an approach to involve several local actors across sectors, enabling a wide range of long-term economic benefits.
The second case study is mapping the currently existing methods for establishing bottom-up, community-centered green transition initiatives, their structural barriers and ways to overcome these barriers.
Objectives
The project aims to engage a diverse range of stakeholders to seek more concrete information on the structural barriers that Nordic regions and local communities working for green transition initiatives face. It also aims to elevate this knowledge into a broader cross-Nordic understanding on the variety of methods available for initiatives focused on local benefits, their structural barriers, and ways to overcome them.
Project structure
The project structure follows three steps. The first two focuses on identifying barriers and the third on identifying solutions.
1. Agroecological symbiosis
In the first step, Nordregio will identify local agroecological symbiosis related solutions in the Nordics with demonstrated local economic benefits. We will also engage a range of stakeholders working with these solutions. Nordregio will conduct a round of expert interviews and organising a cross-Nordic workshop with a network of key stakeholders. The purpsoe of the workshop will be to map out different structural barriers to the agroecological symbiosis model, as well as the potential to address them with the tools available for regional and local actors.
2. Methods of genuine local participation
Step 2 is mapping of different methods that exist in the Nordic countries for establishing bottom-up, community-centered green transition initiatives. It also involves a combination of legal and policy analysis of the current structural barriers, mixed with a round of expert interviews as well as a cross-analysis of results from Steps 1 and 2.
3. Identifying pathways forward
In the third step, Nordregio will be engaging a small focus group to review the results of steps 1 and 2 to discuss potential actions to overcome the identified structural barriers from various viewpoints. There will also be direct contact with the municipalities involved in Step 1 to seek ways of presenting project findings to local experts for further review and validation.
The research project is a part of the thematic group for green transition and competitiveness, which is a platform for regional policy co-operation between expert networks across the Nordic Region. The Nordic thematic groups contribute to the Nordic Co-operation Programme for Regional Development and Planning 2025-2030 under the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Committee of Senior Officials for Regional Policy (EK-R).
