Energy transition in the Baltic Sea Region

Abstract

Public acceptance, bottom-up grassroots activities and social acceptability play an essential role in an energy transition. It is therefore vital to understand how to unlock the potential for public, community and prosumer participation in a clean energy transition. This requires a closer examination of factors contributing to perceptions of acceptability, particularly among stakeholders. The existing literature on these topics may be extensive, but it often provides little guidance to policymakers and other actors on how to proceed with their work given the complex nature of social acceptance and acceptability. This chapter examines the potential for active stakeholder engagement and bottom-up activities in an energy transition in various sectors. It also reviews current legal developments and policy measures, using the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) as an empirical focus, in order to foster clean energy deployment in the region and apply lessons learnt from this region to other areas in and outside Europe. The BSR is uniquely suited for a study of potential transferability to other environments because it represents a microcosm of diverse energy profiles and strategies, decarbonisation approaches, cultures, political histories, and legal and industrial profiles. This chapter also provides an overview of the content of the book.