The role of public and democratic legitimacy in the implementation of EU’s climate legislation. Comparing Denmark and Sweden

The aim of European Green Deal (EGD) and EU’s unprecedented climate and energy legislation is to accelerate deep and rapid decarbonization to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement. The challenge to rapidly implement emission reductions are exacerbated in an era of poly-crisis with authoritarian populism, democratic backlash, geopolitical tensions and climate policy dismantling. In the EU, the Nordic countries have a historical legacy of being environmental pioneers and are regarded as the most advanced green states in the world. In particular, Denmark and Sweden are known for their ambitious climate policies with robust institutional framework for implementing the EGD and EU’s climate package Fit for 55. Both countries also have deep-seated tradition of experimenting with democratic innovations and citizen participation in climate policy. Arguing that democracy is essential to achieve the implementation of the EGD and Fit for 55, this paper aims to explain the variation in climate policy ambition and implementation record between Sweden and Denmark by focusing on public and democratic legitimacy of climate policy. The different impact of rightwing populist parties on the countries’ decarbonization efforts will be examined. While Sweden struggle to achieve deep decarbonization and the Fit for 55 package, Denmark is on track with achieving EU’s 2030 targets. Sweden suffers from an implementation deficit and turned out as climate laggard while Denmark is on the way to reach 2030 targets and emerged as a climate front-runner for stronger 2040 targets and advocate for EU’s nature restoration law. The paper employs the two-fold notion of public legitimacy and democratic legitimacy to compare Sweden’s and Denmark’s efforts to achieve decarbonization in line with EU’s climate and energy policy. Through a structured focused comparison between Denmark’s and Sweden’s implementation of EU’s Fit for 55, the paper compares how two factors affect the outcome - public legitimacy of EU’s policy and democratic legitimacy to increase accountability, transparency and participation. Like other EU member states, Denmark and Sweden need to secure public legitimacy for tighter climate policy, increase shares of renewable energy and energy efficiency as required by the ambitious goals in the EU’s climate and energy legislation. At the same time democratic or procedural legitimacy needs to be secured in terms participation, transparency and accountability of governments’ progress towards EU’s climate targets.