Le pouvoir sans politique? Nature, paysage et énergies renouvelables en islande

Increasing renewable energy production has become a policy priority for most nations, but the development of renewable energy sites is often mired in conflicts between nature conservation and use. In Iceland, energy planning carries many characteristics of the ‘post-political’ condition identified by some scholars, which may accentuate conflicts rather than mitigate them. By virtue of its natural conditions Iceland is particularly well endowed with renewable energy sources, which now constitute more than 80% of the country’s primary energy mix. Ongoing capitalisation of nature through neoliberal economic management in the energy sector has increased corporate pressures to develop new sites, many of which are located in areas deemed valuable for their natural landscape and/or ecological characteristics. A countrywide, yet site-based, planning process aimed at resolving conflicts between nature conservation and energy interests has not fully lived up to expectations. The paper argues that the post-political approach that this planning process embodies renders it unable to deliver truly democratic decisions about future development of the energy sector. Cultivation of ‘agonistic politics’ is needed in order to develop the energy sector in a responsible way, enabling Iceland to truly contribute to the global energy transition while also preventing the destruction of important values associated with local nature.