Image: Leojth, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Image: Leojth, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Research project Geopolitical uncertainty is reshaping energy policy and reviving interest in forests as strategic energy resources. In northern Sweden—marked by vast forests, energy infrastructure, and major green investments—historical experiences of crisis show how forest-based bioenergy has previously supported societal preparedness. This project explores how past and present energy transitions can inform future preparedness.
This project examines the historical and political dynamics shaping forests as energy resources in northern Sweden from the 1970s to today. By combining history of ideas and political science, it analyzes how material conditions, ideas, institutions, and path dependencies have governed the interplay between forest-based bioenergy, fossil fuels, and other renewables. Focusing on periods of crisis and development, the project identifies lessons for integrating forests into contemporary energy security and national preparedness strategies.
This project explores how northern Sweden’s forests have shaped—and been shaped by—shifting energy systems, crises, and political priorities from the 1970s to the present. While forest-based bioenergy has long been central to Sweden’s responses to energy insecurity, it has often remained a complement to fossil fuels rather than a full alternative. Today, rising geopolitical uncertainty and renewed concerns over energy security once again place the forest at the center of strategic debates, alongside its role in climate transition.
Focusing on northern Sweden, the project examines how historical energy crises, changing environmental knowledge, and evolving political and economic conditions have influenced the use of forests as an energy resource. The region’s vast forest landscapes, expanding green industrial investments, and vulnerable energy infrastructure make it a key site for understanding the links between energy, dependency, and preparedness.
By analyzing the long-term interplay between fossil fuels, forest-based bioenergy, and other renewable sources, the project traces how ideas, institutions, and material conditions have created enduring dependencies and development paths. It asks how past policy choices continue to shape today’s energy system and what this means for society’s ability to respond to future crises.
The project, funded by the Kempestiftelserna between 2026-2028, brings together two postdoctoral subprojects, one in the history of science and ideas and one in political science. Together, they provide a historically grounded and policy-relevant understanding of how northern Sweden’s forests can function as a strategic resource in an era defined by overlapping energy, climate, and geopolitical challenges.
