Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

In line with the growing need to adapt to climate change, a paradoxical phenomenon has emerged, with far-right movements appropriating environmental policies to promote their own ideology. This thesis aims to highlight this phenomenon and therefore examines how the Sweden Democrats, a far-right political party, engage with environmental issues, with a particular focus on the energy transition and renewable energy sources. The empirical material for the thesis is based on three official documents from the Sweden Democrats (SD), as well as seven interviews conducted with SD politicians. The thesis uses the theoretical approach of far-right ecologism as described by Balša Lubarda (2023) and highlights concepts such as populism, localism, and nostalgia to examine the SD's rhetoric and framing of the energy transition. The key findings of the thesis show that SD's energy policy is characterised by a nationalist ideology that emphasises self-sufficiency, centralised control, and opposition to EU influence. The party uses energy policy as a tool to promote Swedish sovereignty, emphasising nuclear power as stable and technologically superior, while renewable energy sources such as wind power are dismissed as inefficient. At the same time, a distinction is made between local environmental issues and global climate issues, reinforcing criticism of global cooperation, and emphasising national interests. The thesis shows the importance of continued scrutiny of (still) democratic states to prevent environmental policies from being appropriated to spread an exclusionary agenda. The democracy and justice aspects are central to future environmental work, especially for the energy transition, which otherwise may risk excluding and marginalising certain social groups in the transition to a more sustainable future.