Our colleague Thijs Kraassenberg was interviewed for a piece in an article in NetNL magazine (the magazine of Netbeheer Nederland) about the energy transition and public resistance to it.
Read the article below for a glimpse into the paradox that appears to exist between, on the one hand, the support for the goals of the energy transition and, on the other hand, the increasing protests.
Energy resistance
As the RES's become more concrete, resistance also seems to increase – and not just against wind turbines. What will happen when one in three streets in the Netherlands soon has to be dug up to adapt the energy infrastructure? Will grid operators work among protest signs and angry residents, or can harmony still be found in the energy transition?
No new biomass plants. No new nuclear power plants. No solar panels on agricultural land. No wind turbines near nature reserves. No power line across Schiermonnikoog. No substation in Rozenburg. And absolutely no wind farm near Amsterdam IJburg, of course!
Anyone who takes stock of the protests against energy initiatives—the list is much longer—might conclude that the energy transition has little public support in the Netherlands. Yet that is not the case. According to the SCP study ‘The Energy Transition from a Citizen’s Perspective’ (2020), more than three-quarters of the Dutch population considers the shift from fossil fuels to green energy to be important. A similar picture is painted by the CBS report published in early June on attitudes and behavior regarding climate change and the energy transition. Those surveyed by the CBS believe that the Netherlands should focus more on solar energy (83%), wind energy (72.5%), hydropower (67.9%), and geothermal energy (56.3%). By comparison, the percentage for natural gas is 6.7%, and for coal and petroleum, it is 0.
Paradox
So there is support for the goals of the energy transition. How, then, is it that protests are increasing at the same time? Many people attribute this paradox to the NIMBY effect: people support the transition—until they notice its effects in their own backyard. That explanation is only partially accurate, as the CBS report shows. When asked about the construction of new wind turbines in the Netherlands, 71% are in favor and only 14% are opposed. But when it comes to wind turbines in their own neighborhood, the proportion of opponents suddenly more than doubles: 31%. Aha, NIMBY? Not if you look at it from a different perspective: well over two-thirds are not automatically opposed to wind turbines in their own neighborhood. And nearly half (43%) of those surveyed by CBS say ‘it depends’ on whether they are for or against wind turbines in their neighborhood. And that, according to environmental management expert Thijs Kraassenberg, is the crux of the matter: “If we as a society want the energy transition to proceed on the scale we had envisioned, then we must ensure that we create the right conditions for it.” According to him, exactly which conditions make the transition acceptable depends on the situation. “The energy transition touches on what people value. For some, it’s the landscape; others are concerned that their health or sleep will suffer. A loss of autonomy—not having control over what happens in your immediate surroundings—also plays a role and can evoke strong emotions. All these aspects are relevant; there isn’t just one factor to consider.”
Not opponents, but proponents
According to Kraassenberg, it's a misconception to consider this concern as opposition. “The majority of these people are not primarily against something, but rather in favor of it: preserving their beloved landscape, health, sleep, and autonomy. If you start from that premise and show that you are aware of these interests, you will have a completely different conversation.”
Eefje Cuppen, professor of Governance of Sustainability at Leiden University and one of the authors of the Brenninkmeijer report on citizen participation (see box), said something similar in early June during a webinar of the Top Sector Energy, on ‘The gut feeling of the energy transition’: “Protest, or even conflict, can also mean something positive. It is a source of information about what is valuable to whom. It is often thought that these values differ greatly, but that's actually not the case. For example, we all want to live in a clean, fair, and just world. Only choices have to be made to achieve such an ideal. This always involves trade-offs. And people naturally do disagree on that.”
Rat, or worse
If the foundation is solid, disagreements don't have to be an insurmountable problem to still reach an acceptable solution. However, ‘agree to disagree’ is naturally a more constructive starting point than calling each other names – or worse, as happened a few years ago in Drenthe and Groningen. There, heated disagreements about wind farms escalated into threats and sabotage, for which the court later sentenced the suspects to prison.
Although emotions sometimes run high at current energy protests, according to Kraassenberg, it's not a given that they will get out of hand again. “Escalations like those in Drenthe only arise when residents feel so poorly treated that they see justification in crossing all sorts of boundaries themselves,” he explains. “Such a major conflict is never the result of just one thing going wrong; it's always a sum of factors.” According to the environmental management expert, a lot of misery can be prevented by thoroughly empathizing with the interests of other stakeholders beforehand. “Ensure good representation of the people involved at the earliest possible stage. Realize that their perspective and yours are not automatically the same. Political embedding also plays a role. Politicians, both national and local, must be able to trust that you also have their interests clearly in mind. For example, achieving policy goals, or getting citizens ‘on board,’ perhaps even getting re-elected.”
A matter of trust
“In addition, transparency naturally carries a lot of weight. ”Acting secretly or withholding information is pretty much the least smart thing you can do. You will inevitably get hit hard for it,“ says Kraassenberg. He argues that support (or the opposite: resistance) essentially comes down to trust. ”Are people convinced that everything will be alright when you, as the grid operator, come to dig things up later? Will they let you put the shovel in the ground in their immediate living environment with peace of mind? Or do they still need to see if you'll protect their interests as carefully as your own? To gain that trust, competencies are needed that grid operators didn't even ask for in their job interviews ten years ago: empathy, listening skills, tact, and the creativity to come up with out-of-the-box solutions.'"
Cuppen has a similar message. “You can apply all sorts of great participation manuals and blueprints – and many have been designed in recent years – but ultimately, it comes down to what someone actually does in practice. And in this regard, the devil is in the details. In the field of the energy transition, fortunately, there are increasingly more professionals who are open to a diversity of perspectives, who don't immediately see conflicts as ‘oh, people don't understand, we need to explain and rationalize better,’ but who understand that emotional reactions are often a sign that important things are at stake for those involved.”
Add milk.
According to Cuppen, whether the further progress of the energy transition proceeds more harmoniously or continues to be accompanied by protests partly depends on how the main stakeholders approach the dialogue with those involved. “Do governments, energy producers, and grid operators make a serious effort, or do they leave it ‘for now’ to a communications officer?” Kraassenberg also emphasizes the need to allocate sufficient quality and capacity for ‘his’ field. “Stakeholders can sense precisely when someone isn't fully committed because they're overwhelmed with work. You can imagine what that does for the trust surrounding a project that people find nerve-wracking. The chance of failure then increases enormously,” he states. “I know that grid operators are under immense time pressure and I understand that the tendency is sometimes great to work from deadline to deadline. But still: ensure quality and leadership from the very beginning of a project. Careful preparation will pay for itself twofold throughout every project.”
For the original article Click here.
