The role of municipal governments in navigating decision-making for justice in Arctic energy transition

Arctic cities face many of the direct consequences of climate change and, at the same time, are under pressure to implement green energy systems. While the goal of reducing carbon emissions is predominantly shared, the path to realizing it is complex and municipalities are tasked with organizing coalitions of actors to govern these decisions. The theoretical work on energy system change and green transitions are often linked to the concept of a ‘just transition.’ Massive shifts in our societal structure require examination of the capacity of government steering, including an understanding of the input from different actors and the degree of influence they hold. Just transition has been applied to environmental, climate, and energy contexts as it offers the potential to integrate many approaches into an overarching and consolidated framework for achieving justice gains In the context of energy systems and industrial development, it is often subject to locally relevant social values that inform public opinion but also predicated on the idea that some individuals, groups, and lands are more vulnerable to environmental, political, or social changes than others. This paper assesses the challenges for justice in energy transition in the Arctic. The analysis in this article focuses on four key factors that have implications for justice particular to the scale and urgency of the growth-oriented green transformation. While traditional understandings of justice typically applied to transitions (recognition, procedural, distributional, and restorative) we apply four factors, based on our previous research, that better capture both the historical context and capacity issues related to municipal energy system change: 1) the order in which developments occur, 2) the agent driving the transformation, 3) the timescale, and 4) the groups involved, each play a role in shaping justice considerations and outcomes. This paper compares the role of municipal governments in two Arctic cases, Luleå, Sweden and Yellowknife, Canada, in navigating decision-making related to the energy transition. In Luleå, a city intimately tied to iron extraction, a green transition is underway, powered by an abundance of renewable energy, featuring innovations in green steel production and hydrogen production. These new initiatives are tied to existing industrial activities but raise important issues regarding justice in the transition and the ability of non-industrial actors to shape the future of the community. In Yellowknife, the mining industry is also critical to local economic development. However, the pressure to develop green energy is largely premised around energy security and the infrastructure competition between industrial and societal needs. The municipality faces similar choices with regards to supporting established industries or finding new constellations of support for their renewable energy choices. This study uses interview data with key stakeholders involved and affected by the energy transition in Luleå and Yellowknife, including municipal officials. Using our just transition framework, we identify factors of path dependency in each case that constrain each municipality and identify the network of actors working with the municipality – shaping the energy system and determining long-term outcomes for the community.