Paper short abstract:

When the previous energy transition took place in Finland, the Finnish Parliament served as a forum for public debates on energy. The aim of this presentation is to shed light on the environmental concerns and tensions in the parliamentary debates on energy during the First Oil Crisis.

Paper long abstract:

The energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables is widely considered essential to achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and the European Green Deal. The European Union and many of its member states have committed to phasing out fossil fuels in the near future. As an industrialized welfare state in Northern Europe, Finland has set as its goal to implement the transition by 2035.

The energy transition is not only a technical but also a thoroughly political, social, and cultural issue. Thus, researchers in Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) are well equipped to offer novel understandings of the features of energy transitions to the current debate. For example, historical research can provide a long-term perspective and understanding of the influence and significance of context to the discussions on potential energy futures. The need for a temporal lens can also be justified by the fact that energy transitions are understood as phenomena that often take place over several decades or centuries.

Like today, political power, agency, and changes in the historical and geopolitical context have played a pivotal role during past energy transitions. When the previous energy transition took place in Finland, the Finnish Parliament served as a forum for public debates on energy, related technologies, and infrastructure. The aim of this presentation is to shed light on the environmental concerns and tensions in the parliamentary debates on energy during the First Oil Crisis.