The vicissitudes of energy-climate policy in Stockholm: politics, materiality and transition

Jonathan Rutherford

LATTS (Laboratoire Techniques, Territoires et Sociétés) Ecole des Ponts ParisTech

LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

Consensus as pre-requisite…  “Transition management begins with the agreement of a collective transition objective” (Rotmans et al, 2001, 13)  “Effective action depends upon shared normative visions of the future and agreement about the means to get there” (Commission Européenne 2007, p.47) LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

Radical change is more complex…  “The transition towards a low carbon society (…) presents enormous challenges for governments, industries and communities because of the huge complexities involved and the fact that ingrained beliefs, socio-technical systems, institutional logics, political landscapes and divergent interests often impede (…) systemic change” (ACCIS 2010)

LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

La posture LATTS  Entrer dans la « boîte noire » de la production des objets sociotechniques complexes, « lourds » de leur matérialité, matérialité étant entendue comme une relation entre matière, acteurs et formes de régulation institutionnelle  Cette entrée par la matérialité renvoie à l’idée qu’il existe une « épaisseur du monde » que chercheurs et praticiens doivent prendre en considération pour comprendre les mutations de nos sociétés contemporaines LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

Focus  Stockholm, the ‘green capital of Europe’ in 2010: what lies/hides behind ‘best practice’? 

A critical focus on contradictions, compromises and conflicts to get beyond normative beliefs and agendas

 How do energy-climate issues and agendas translate (or not) on an urban level into concrete actions and material forms?  What are the ordinary, daily politics of the urban environment as practised by local actors with diverging interests?  “After all, our cities may be scripted, but our performances do not always follow the script” (Hubbard 2006) LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

Stockholm county: 678,500 ha 180 km from north to south 280 inhabitants/km2 Population: 1,895,000 > 2030 estimate: c. 2,400,000 26 municipalities Stockholm city: Population: 800,000 LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

 “The city’s main strategy is to exploit and build on the capital’s advantages in terms of expanding district heating and attractive public transport. Other significant measures relating to climate change are promoting technological advances and facilitating efficient energy use through careful urban planning. The city is also a major procurer of goods and services, which puts it in a strong position to promote the application of environmentally effective technology” (City of Stockholm, 2010, p.10) LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

‘Successful’ energy-climate policy  CO2 emissions: ↓ 24% 19902009  Population: ↑ 22%  = CO2 emissions / resident: ↓ 38% LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

Accounting for emissions reductions  Measures accounting for emissions reductions  District heating expansion  Public transport investment  Congestion charge  Energy efficiency in buildings  National subsidies (KLIMP) and City funds (environmental billion)

LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

Problematising ‘success’: three areas of contention  Putting into practice and measuring ‘fossil fuel free city’  The municipality and the heating company  Bypass-ing public transport

LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

Compatible or conflicting long term objectives? 

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Fossil fuel free Stockholm by 2050  “it will take considerable effort from the city and all those who live and work in Stockholm to achieve the ambitious target of a fossil fuel free city by 2050” (City Plan 2010, 10) World class Stockholm by 2030  “we are sufficiently large to offer the sort of qualities that will enable us to compete with the world’s great metropolises” (Vision 2030 2007, 3) “Technological developments and economic growth now provide a solid foundation for an ecologically sustainable society” (Vision 2030 2007, 11) LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

World class v. fossil fuel free  “The Moderate-led majority's Vision 2030 should not have to be the sole basis for the upcoming comprehensive plan; more scenarios are needed. Vision 2030 conflicts with the creation of an environmentally sustainable city and with the achievement of the city's climate goals. The process should have been formulated in other ways than the vision of "Stockholm as a world-class city". We question the extent to which this captures people's vision of their Stockholm. It is our assessment that most Stockholmers simply want a good place to live, for themselves and their children. We therefore need to jointly define the Stockholm which we want to see in the future. Then we can discuss the means to achieve this” (Green Party in City of Stockholm 2010, 16) LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

Heating Stockholm from/for Helsinki  Multipositionality of City of Stockholm:  Municipality  Part owner of Fortum Värme  Housing company operator LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

Privatisation = price rises! 

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“We only own half so we can’t tell what to do. All the decisions though are strictly economic” (City of Stockholm) Our task is to distribute the energy and to make a profit, that’s all” (Fortum)

“Selling the company was a wrong analysis. With the price increases, I think it was a bad idea to sell…” (former Mayor of Stockholm)

LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

“If we produce better energy than they do in Denmark and Germany, we can export it and the carbon dioxide they save is saved in Europe, maybe not in our chimneys but in their chimneys” (Fortum, interview, 2010). LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

‘Darkness’ on the edge of town  Värtaverket district heating plant still half-fired by coal  the worst polluter in the Swedish district heating industry  = same quantity of CO2 emissions as all the cars in Stockholm (i.e. a quarter of the city’s total CO2 emissions) (Holmback and Warlenius 2010) LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

City – Fortum conflict in the Action Plan? Text in main report

Correction in annex (‘errata’) An entire transition to An entire transition to renewable fuels is not renewable fuels is not considered being economically considered technically feasible viable by Fortum by Fortum The single largest source of (deleted) greenhouse gas emissions in Stockholm is CHP Plant 6 in Värtan… Cost efficiency [of using Cost efficiency [of using renewable fuels instead of coal] renewable fuels instead of coal] = High = Low LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

Source: City of Stockholm Action Plan for Climate and Energy 20102020

“Highway to hell”: from the congestion charge to the bypass  Congestion charge has led to decreased CO2 emissions  Income from the charge was supposed to fund public transport investments  But is now funding a new 6 lane bypass road:  “absolutely necessary” (Moderates)  “an insane project” (Greens)  “The clearest example” of the abandoning of environmental goals LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

Which Stockholm for whose interest?  Unpacking contradictions, compromises and conflicts as a means of grasping the diverse ways in which diverse urban actors are responding (or not) to energy-climate issues in specific urban contexts (low carbon urban transitions as controversies…)  The politics of energy-climate are not present in the big long term (quasi-consensual) objectives, but in the details and the modalities of operationalising these objectives or in the changes of direction which allow politicians to shift resources away from these objectives towards other contradictory ones.  How climate mitigation discourse (‘fossil fuel free’) becomes confronted with the materialities of energy (policy)  The politics of urban transition as a set of struggles over the evolving, everyday materialities and infrastructures that matter to Stockholmers LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV

Materiality, diversity, transition  Urban materiality: ‘the ordering, circulation and manipulation of things’ (Latham et al)  Image / representation (the graph, the chimney, the map…)  Flow / mobility (of CO2, heat, people, money…)  Agency / power (multipositionality, heterodoxy, contestation…) and how this works through space, scale, relationality…

 Multiple interpretations, flows, capacities to act → disrupting and disordering linear pathways…  Reversible v. irreversible materialities… LATTS – Laboratoire commun CNRS (UMR 8134), Ecole des Ponts, UMLV