Assembling national biofuel development in the European Union – a comparison of Finland and Sweden

Abstract

The author analyses the state powers steering biofuel development in two European Union (EU) Member States: Finland and Sweden. The different biofuel developments of these countries are approached through the concept of assemblages, which allows analysis of how the spatiality of national development is constituted in relation to the increasingly global development of biofuels. The approach illustrates how national policies implemented by Finland and Sweden are multiscaled in their origins and mediated by the agents of these assemblages. Materials in the study consist of EU and national policy documents, and 16 interviews from the key biofuel agents in Finland and Sweden. The author explains the differentiation of national biofuel assemblages through their distinguishing topologies, advocacy groups, and the properties of national policy instruments. The results demonstrate how Finnish and Swedish policies have influenced national biofuel developments. The EU's biofuel policies have diverging impacts nationally as they are translated into the specific patterns of biofuel production, consumption, and trade. Consequently, the agents of biofuel assemblages affect the transference of biofuel policies that originate from multiple scales into the national policy frameworks of the Member States.