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
The project focuses on three types of green transition schemes: energy communities, nature restoration schemes and circular symbiosis models. All these transition schemes can be expected to help the local communities extract benefits in a meaningful, place-based and inclusive way, with a long-term perspective.
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. Regulatory barriers: knowledge overview
The first step establishes a knowledge overview of the three themes and the state of related policies, barriers and developments in the Nordic countries. During this step, we will also engage a wide network of relevant stakeholders working with these resources and continue working with them during the next steps.
2. Case studies
Step 2 explores the three themes deeper by selecting a range of relevant cases in different Nordic countries and conducting interviews with local experts. The case studies offer an understanding of how people working on the ground experience the structures and barriers mapped in the knowledge overview, while also discussing the topics of social acceptance.
3. Identifying ways forward
In the third step, Nordregio will engage with focus groups to review the results of steps 1 and 2. The focus groups will continue the discussion on potential actions to overcome the identified structural barriers from various viewpoints, as well as the transferability and scalability of the best practices.
The research project is a part of the thematic group for competitiveness and an inclusive green transition, 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).
