ID: 1665
Presenting Author: Tuulia Puustinen
Session: 550 - (Re)building trust and transparency to navigate complex energy transitions
Status: pending
This study explores transparency and trust challenges in the multi-level strategic governance of cumulative impacts in the context of Finland’s energy transition.
Literature suggests that there is a need for regional and national level policy and planning interventions in an effective cumulative impact (CI) governance in addition to project-level impact assessment and planning. Strategic-level CI governance is, however, unestablished and further complicated by the need to ensure vertical policy coherence and legitimacy across administrative levels. This study aims to explore the role of transparency and trust in the strategic governance of CIs at regional and national level in the context of Finland’s energy transition. The data draws upon 24 interviews of regional planners and state and regional authorities in Finland. Our findings show that the effectiveness of CI governance at the regional level is weakened by the limited national-level guidance and ongoing uncertainty about what CI governance encompasses and how it should be carried out. In the absence of a shared national vision, CI governance efforts lose momentum and coherence. These dynamics reflect the politically contested nature of CI governance in the context of energy transition both nationally and regionally. This study contributes to academic debates on opportunities and challenges of strategic CI governance. The practical findings benefit decision makers, planners and the wind and solar power industry.
Dr. Tuulia Puustinen works as a university researcher (environmental policy) at the University of Eastern Finland.
Coauthor 1: Rauno Sairinen