Competing land-use pressures in Norway: Examining the integration of nature protection concerns in windpower licenses

Informations

Funding country

Norway

Acronym

-

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2016

End date

12/31/2021

Budget

795,318 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

The conflicts and potential trade-off between greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions and nature protection are evident in policies aimed at promoting renewable energy. This project focuses on how this trade-off is handled in Norwegian windpower development. We have examined all windpower licenses granted and rejected in Norway to identify how nature protection concerns and the cumulative effects of several plants, extensive new access roads and grid connections have been treated. This examination of aggregate trends formed the basis for further analysis, including examinations of formal and informal stakeholder influence in the licensing process. Ultimately, the project seeks to understand to what extent and how the political objectives of windpower development and nature protection in Norway can be combined, particularly in regions under high pressure from human activities. To this end, we have also examined how legal frameworks and licensing processes can be improved to consider the environmental and cumulative impacts of windpower projects more effectively. The Norwegian windpower licensing process follows two main acts: The Energy Act (1990) and the Planning and Building Act (2008). In addition, there are relevant directives under the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA) that are important. The two acts differ significantly in terms of their basic starting points and institutional affiliation. One study discusses how tasks are distributed among authorities at the national, regional and local levels under the rules. This study discusses issues associated with lack of implementation of rules on environmental impact assessments, inadequate and outdated guidelines for those wanting to construct wind power, and the partly failed efforts to adopt regional plans for windpower developments. The project shows that the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) has considerable room for discretion in the exercise of its licensing authority and that there is often a lack of transparency and predictability associated with environmental assessments. It is unclear exactly how the NVE weighs nature concerns and cumulative impacts in its final determination about whether to grant a permit. The agency cannot issue windpower permits in protected areas, but the decision is much harder to predict when the project may conflict with an Eagle Owl habitat, migratory birds, mires, wetlands, meadows, or other valuable habitats. Because such decision-making guidelines are inadequate or lacking, the NVE has significant discretion in making licensing decisions. For both windpower developers and windpower opponents, it is unfortunate that it is hard to predict the outcome of seemingly similar windpower applications. We also find that municipalities and landowners have a great deal of influence on the outcome of the licensing process, and that the municipal council as a consultation body in practice has been an informal veto power in the process. The windpower municipalities feel that the licensing process generally is fair, but they are often dissatisfied with the planning process that follows due to very restricted municipal participation. The property tax is a corner stone for formal acceptance in the municipality, but municipalities hosting windpower plants feel short-changed compared to municipalities that gain much higher tax incomes from hosting hydropower. A quantitative analysis confirms the results from the qualitative studies. The study is based on a statistical analysis of the weight given to nature protection and the position of local authorities on Norwegian windpower license decisions. The findings show that environmental impact assessments and municipal positions on windpower development strongly influence the likelihood of being granted a licence. High environmental impact of a project reduces the likelihood of a licence being granted. The position of the host municipality on a windpower project application has an even stronger influence on the licencing outcome for that project. The analysis shows that the municipalities are de facto veto players in the licensing process. Conversely, a clearly positive municipality increases the likelihood of a license being granted. This is also a very strong effect, but not as strong as the veto effect in the case of municipalities opposed to windpower development. The project has also compared the licensing procedure for windpower plants in Sweden and Norway and analyzed how the Swedish municipal "veto rule" is used in practice and the debate about this rule. This comparative study and the project more generally show that national planning instruments should be combined with greater opportunities for municipalities to influence the siting and planning of windpower plants.