Sociotechnical imaginaries of alternative and supplementary climate measures: Narratives of Scandinavian countries

Abstract

The ongoing anthropogenic climate change and associated global climate crisis is possessing a massive risk for the future of entire globe and to all the human and non-human ecosystems living in it. Two main acknowledged pillars of climate measures to tackle the climate change and its negative consequences are mitigation and adaptation. However, there is a general consensus that these efforts are so far largely failed and are not able to sufficiently control the rise of the global average temperature in order to eliminate the risks to an acceptable or manageable level. In parallel with this, especially in the recent decades, alternative and/or supplementary climate measures have begun to be visualized, developed and to a certain degree employed around the world to eliminate or at least to reduce the persistent risks. Among them, geoengineering and nature based solutions are two of the most popular climate measures that are being envisioned in the making of the desirable climate future with no or less climate risks. In this light, this study focuses on geoengineering and nature based solutions, in the making of the positive climate futures of the Scandinavian countries, namely Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, due to their special position compared to others with regards to their climate change susceptibilities and ongoing climate efforts as well as their success in doing so. Using the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries from the Science, Technology and Society field as the theoretical framework for this study, it is aimed to assess how geoengineering and nature based solutions are perceived and how their imaginaries are being constructed in line with the construction of the Scandinavian climate future based on the respective long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies of the Scandinavian countries and make a comparison. For this purpose, a qualitative and interpretive content analysis was conducted on the strategy documents. It should be noted that, due to the nature of the long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategy documents, the identified sociotechnical imaginaries as a result of this study are dominantly representative of the institutions of power. As a result of the study, although not necessarily labelled under these particular names, various geoengineering and nature based solutions techniques have been detected as imagined and to a certain degree already practiced climate measures in the strategy documents of the Scandinavian countries, which are mainly focusing on the carbon dioxide removal methods. Alongside with the various identified techniques, associated sociotechnical imaginaries that are shaped together with the detected narratives and hopes and fears of each country were analysed based on the strategy documents. It was detected that the most embedded and dominant imaginary associated with geoengineering and nature based solutions among Scandinavian countries is as a supplement to mitigation efforts, but they are accompanied with various methods specific to each country's different circumstances. The main imaginaries of geoengineering and nature based solutions are in conjunction and towards the same common goal via similar main principle of carbon dioxide removal for all three countries. In parallel with the findings of the study it was detected that certain climate measures can be identified and labelled both under geoengineering and nature based solutions which shows that the distinction between them, at least for certain practices, are getting vague.