Denna rapport har författats som en delleverans inom ramen för Vinnova-projektet ”Dialog för Slites framtid” (Dnr 2024–03723). Projektet är en genomförandestudie och syftar till att utforska förutsätt-ningarna för en medborgardialog och/eller samverkansmodell i Slite i samband med att Heidelberg Materials planerar för en omställning till klimatneutral cementproduktion. Omställningen av industri-verksamheten i Slite skulle bland annat innefatta en etablering av en anläggning för koldioxidinfång-ning och lagring (Carbon Capture and Storage, CCS) liksom en omfattande utbyggnad av hamnen i an-slutning till den befintliga fabriken. Tillsammans med ett förnyat 30-årigt tillstånd för kalkbrytning skulle dessa investeringar komma att medföra betydande påverkan på den fysiska miljön i och kring Slite. I samband med utbyggnaden förväntas även inkommande arbetskraft leda till stora demografiska förändringar i samhället. Mot denna bakgrund fick Region Gotland under hösten 2024 i uppdrag att involvera lokalsamhället i ett tidigt samråd. Projektet ”Dialog för Slites framtid” lägger grunden för detta dialogarbete. Som en del av projektet syftar rapporten till att presentera och jämföra några olika former för medborgardialog och modeller för gemensam platsutveckling.

SEDAN DET KLIMATPOLITISKA ramverket antogs av riksdagen i juni 2017 har Sverige strävat efter att bli ett fossilfritt välfärdsland. Målet är att Sverige inte ska ha några netto-utsläpp av växthusgaser år 2045 och därefter uppnå negativa utsläpp. För att nå detta mål har staten krokat arm med näringslivet och riktat fokus mot utsläppstunga sektorer så som energi, transport och basindustri. Samarbetet har präglats av en stor teknikoptimism. Genom gröna teknikskiften ska den svenska industrins konkurrenskraft stärkas, nya jobb skapas och klimatnytta exporteras till världen. I denna omställnings berättelse saknas medborgarnasröster, drömmar och visioner. Behöver svensk klimatpolitik bli mer inkluderande för att vinna folkligt stöd och vad innebär det i så fall i praktiken?

This paper focuses on the role of spatial imaginaries in Sweden’s transition to a fossil free society. Through focus groups and individual interviews in two Swedish communities, closely entangled with carbon intensive industries, we analyze the spatial imaginaries embedded in people’s stories about place and what they are doing to the local dynamics of the fossil free transition. Our findings show how othering, recognized as a forceful mechanism of spatial imaginaries, contributes to a starkly pronounced us-and-them dynamics in our case study locations where geographical divisions such as urban-rural, north-south and center-periphery shapes how the fossil free transition is understood and received. Our findings suggest that from a national policy perspective the greatest challenge ahead lies in “creating an us” in the face of transformation by designing policies that approach the transition to a fossil free society as a common concern met by collective effort. Moreover, our results confirm the vital importance of also treating industrial decarbonization as a process of place-making where communities and local citizens are at the very center of envisioning place-based desired futures.

In this article, we study how Sweden’s transition to a fossil free society is interpreted and experienced by communities whose livelihoods and cultural identities are entangled with carbon-intensive industries. The study draws upon interviews with citizen groups in the coastal city of Lysekil, located next to Scandinavia’s largest oil refinery. Our analysis speaks to a growing scholarly literature on just transitions where we argue that a better understanding of place attachment as an active and operating force in local transition processes, can provide important information for just transition policy design. Based on our research on place attachment in Lysekil, we suggest that inclusivity in just transitions, implies acknowledging and addressing more than material aspects of loss, involving loss of direction, loss of identities and loss of imagined futures. Moreover, we argue that the vision of an inclusive transition requires a more nuanced approach to the concept of “community” which recognises different stories, voices, and perspectives and challenges taken for granted assumptions about local people's priorities in debates on just transitions. Finally, based on our experiences from Lysekil we contend that inclusivity requires communicative spaces where citizens can meet to listen, speak, and discuss future pathways towards a fossil free society. The visions of just and inclusive transitions, we argue, can only be realised if driven by a place-based dialogue on future pathways and if agendas for a fossil free transformation are locally anchored.

The need to develop sustainable stormwater management is intensifying due to climate impacts and urban densification. Such complex planning processes require insights into disparate issues, connecting heterogeneous actors. While many decision-support tools are developed to facilitate such planning, research assessing their usefulness is requested. This study introduces and assesses one such ICT-tool; the Visual Water platform, aiming to support sustainable stormwater planning in Swedish municipalities. The study aims to identify critical points to consider for developers of related decision-support tools and to detangle requirements and tradeoffs in making them relevant and user-friendly, building on test-sessions with Swedish practitioners. Results show that the platform responds to challenges within municipal planning as outlined by Swedish practitioners. However, though the platform content is considered relevant, its application in real-world planning is perceived as somewhat unclear. The paper discusses ideas for how sustainability-related decision-support tools better can respond to user demands.

Visual Water (http//visualwater.se) är en interaktiv webbaserad visualiseringsplattform som syftar till att stötta svenska kommuner i arbetet för en hållbar dagvatten- och skyfallshantering. Plattformen är utformad för att svara mot centrala utmaningar som lyfts av svenska dagvattenaktörer som befinner sig i skiftet bort från de rörbundna nätverksidealen för avledning av dagvatten och strävar efter en högre grad av grön-blå och öppna lösningar i stadsmiljön.

Visual Water (http//visualwater.se) is an interactive web-based platform for geographic and information visualization aiming to support Swedish municipalities working towards sustainable stormwater management. The content and functionalities of the platform are designed to respond to central challenges as they are defined by actors in the Swedish stormwater sector who find themselves in the shift away from underground pipe-bound solutions towards blue-green measures in the urban environment.

Climate change impacts, ageing infrastructure and the increasing imperviousness of cities all raise enormous challenges to and call for new ways of planning for sustainable urban stormwater management. Especially, closer collaboration among a diverse set of actors involved has been pointed to as critical to enable the development of holistic and flexible approaches. However, the shift towards inclusive forms of planning has been slow, and characterized by technical and institutional lock-ins. Against this background, this study scrutinizes the challenges and developments perceived as central for improving stormwater planning, and analyzes how formal and informal institutional change could contribute to enhancing sustainability in this sector. Building on an analysis of data from workshops, interviews and a survey with Swedish planners and water managers, we suggest new strategies for integrating stormwater concerns into planning processes, overcoming silo structures, fostering cocreation cultures, and securing the continuation and implementation of stormwater management through various planning stages.

Transforming cities into low-carbon, resilient, and sustainable places will require action encompassing most segments of society. However, local governments struggle to overview and assess all ongoing climate activities in a city, constraining well-informed decision-making and transformative capacity. This paper proposes and tests an assessment framework developed to visualize the implementation of urban climate transition (UCT). Integrating key transition activities and process progression, the framework was applied to three Swedish cities. Climate coordinators and municipal councillors evaluated the visual UCT representations. Results indicate that their understanding of UCT actions and implementation bottlenecks became clearer, making transition more governable. To facilitate UCT, involving external actors and shifting priorities between areas were found to be key. The visual UCT representations improved system awareness and memory, building local transformative capacity. The study recommends systematic assessment and visualization of process progression as a promising method to facilitate UCT governance, but potentially also broader sustainability transitions.

Societal transformation is one of the most topical concepts in sustainability research and policy-making. Used in many ways, it indicates that nonlinear systematic changes are needed in order to fully address global environmental and human development challenges. This paper explores what sustainability transformations mean for lay focus group participants in Cabo Verde, China, Fiji, Sweden, and the USA. Key findings include: (a) Tightly linked to interpersonal relationships, sustainability was seen as going beyond the Sustainable Development Goals to include a sense of belonging; (b) transformations were framed as fundamental changes from today’s society, but most participants stated that transformation pathways need to splice new structures into the old; (c) new technologies are key engines of change. Yet, the most common drivers were awareness, education, and knowledge sharing; and (d) regardless of whether state-centric or decentralized governance was preferred, personal action was seen as essential. The focus groups displayed a shared understanding across the geographical settings; a common realization of profound sustainability predicaments facing societies across the world; and a desire for fundamental change towards a more sustainable way of life.