In recent months there’s been a lot of talk about the ‘dark’ fleet, the ‘shadow’ or the ‘ghost’ fleet. For a while now I have felt that people use these terms without really examining their origins nor the assumptions that come with invoking them, so I wrote about why I think this is a problem:
Sort of!
Thank you for reading! Yes I would say that's an accurate assessment. In another article (currently under review) I actually explore this exact question (on a more conceptual level, not specific to Sweden) in more detail. I distinguish two views of political capital, finite vs. accumulative.
Thank you, curious to hear what you think!
🇨🇴Ahead of Colombia hosting the world’s first international conference for the transition away from fossil fuels in a few weeks, all levers need to be pulled, all opportunities explored. @suspol.bsky.social @sussex.ac.uk @peternewell.bsky.social
Read and share: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Using a power analysis framework, I trace the:
- ✳️ symbolic
- 🛢️ material
- 🌎 international
dimensions of the ban. I argue that it serves as an important tool for non-producing countries to contribute to global efforts against fossil fuels on both the supply and demand side.
⚡️...Yet even symbolic politics can be powerful: as a stepping stone to more material gains in the transition away from fossil fuels. A ban is preventative of future production, sends market signals, and helps build momentum against fossil fuel production globally.
🌱🌹Despite Sweden having no commercial fossil fuel production, the left-of-centre government decided to cancel all existing exploration licenses and ban new exploration and production.
🪧Opponents dismissed this as empty symbolic politics...
NEW ARTICLE: How can fossil fuel non-producer contribute to the transition away from fossil fuels?
🇸🇪🛑Drawing on extensive interview data from my fieldwork in Sweden, I trace the political dynamics of Sweden’s 2022 fossil fuel exploration and extraction ban: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Opponents of solar farms say the photovoltaic panels are ugly, destroy nature and deflate property prices in neglected hinterlands. As drone shots of' encircled farmhouses have become a symbol of urban overreach, the campaign has led even some established parties to soften their support of solar. The backlash had been brewing locally, but Lukas Slothuus, a climate politics researcher at the University of Sussex who grew up in a rural town near the Danish-German border, said the Denmark Democrats had provided a "clear vector to articulate that discontent politically" across the nation. "The far right have realised - and decided - that climate is a potent electoral battleground," he said. "It's just about finding one issue to centre it around."
I was interviewed by @theguardian.com on the right-wing backlash against solar power in Denmark:
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
This came off the back of my article on this for @lseeuroppblog.bsky.social: blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2...
🇬🇧English: klimamonitor-dk.translate.goog/nyheder/deba...
Has the Danish government quietly abandoned its commitment to the Paris Agreement? 🇩🇰 In this piece for @klimamonitor.dk, Jens Friis Lund, @jptilsted.bsky.social, and I call on the government to reiterate their support for the Paris goals. (English in the replies) klimamonitor.dk/nyheder/deba...
Great thread and the same flawed arguments are being peddled in Denmark
Following the price surge, the British right are pedalling a fantasy of self-sufficiency through North Sea oil. This has no serious basis in reality. Britain has been a net energy importer for 20 years. It has nothing to do with net zero and everything to do with decades of declining production🧵
The key players in North Sea oil and gas production decline and job losses haven't been government ministers or regulators. It's private companies who closed down fields and refineries as majors like BP and Shell exited and passed them on to smaller firms.
Fossil fuel stocks are exploding in response to the war on Iran.
Who stands to benefit? The richest of the rich.
Who stands to lose? All of us who have to pay higher prices for energy and a new round of sellers' inflation.
The "Overflowing Bucket" framework by @fergusgreen.bsky.social is really useful to challenge new oil and gas fields. I used it in my public hearing response against INEOS' application for oil and gas extraction from the controversial Hejre field in the Danish North Sea. www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo...
Check out our new article "Power in Fossil Fuel Supply-Side Policy: Closing Down and Opening Up Opportunities to Phase Out Fossil Fuel Production" co-authored with @peternewell.bsky.social @freddiedaley.bsky.social and Daniela Soto Hernandez in @gepjournal.bsky.social direct.mit.edu/glep/article...
From an actual expert
bsky.app/profile/lslo...
Nominally serious media outlets produce so much nonsense about Danish politics. They are full of factual errors. “Denmark” in the political discourse of other countries has become a phantasm to justify their rightwing policy demands. It has very little to do with empirical reality in the country.
H, O and Æ
Only 10% of DPP voters switched to Soc Dem between 2015 and 2019 elections. In recent poll, the far right has total of 17.7%. 2015 was a freak election, the far right has *not* been pacified. If it had, how does Cowley explain the far right vote share has increased between 2022 election and now?
Just a few examples:
1. Cowley thinks Denmark has a ‘left-wing government‘. It doesn’t. It has a grand coalition comprising centre-left, centre, and centre-right.
2. He claims Soc Dems captured far right votes to pacify DPP, but reason for poor DPP result in 2022 is two new far right parties emerged
As an academic born and raised in Denmark who researches and writes about Danish politics, I can confidently say that Cowley has no idea what he’s talking about. The piece is full of factual errors and falsehoods
Opposition to solar power has become a key electoral battleground in Denmark.
Policymakers must return to the community-led ownership models that defined Denmark’s success with wind power –
@lslothuus.bsky.social @suspol.bsky.social @lsegovernment.bsky.social for
@lseeuroppblog.bsky.social
Denmark is often seen as a green frontrunner, but a recent backlash against solar power has thrown this into question.
✍ @lslothuus.bsky.social @lsegovernment.bsky.social @sussex.ac.uk blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2...
How do right-wing/far-right politicians politicise opposition to solar power and obstruct climate action?
For @lseeuroppblog.bsky.social I explain the Denmark Democrats' success and how learning from community-owned wind power might reverse the backlash against solar blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2...
This week for @the-breakdown.bsky.social I spoke to the excellent @annpettifor.bsky.social about finance and the climate crisis—we covered everything from bond vigilantes to Keynes's legacy and bringing back usury as a sin 😉
Give it a listen below:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=psMM...
Now also in German 🇩🇪:
I wrote it before, but glad to have been vindicated!