Referendum rejects wind farm in Swedish municipality
A majority of people voting in a local referendum have said no to a wind park in a hilly, forested area in Malung-Sälen municipality in Dalarna.
The local politicians have stressed that it is an advisory referendum, but can they ignore the outcome of the vote?
52 percent voted no, and just under 45 percent voted yes to the wind park, that will consist of 30 wind turbines in the Ripfjället-area, some 20 kilometres west of the town of Malung. 61 percent of those eligible to vote took part in the referendum on Sunday.
Radio Sweden spoke to Jörgen Norén, chairman of the local Social Democrat party, which is the biggest party in the local government coalition, and Arne Söderbäck, chairman of the no-campaign to hear their arguments for and against the wind park.
For more on the arguments for and against the project, listen to the Radio Sweden report here.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Green energy retrofits coming to public buildings in Arctic Canada, CBC News
Finland: Miners hunting for metals to battery cars threaten Finland’s Sámi reindeer herders’ homeland, The Independent Barents Observer
Norway: The Arctic railway – Building a future or destroying a culture?, Eye on the Arctic
Russia: Russian Indigenous groups call on Elon Musk to boycott company behind Arctic environmental disasters, The Independent Barents Observer
United States: Renewable energy must be community tailored, Arctic conference hears, Eye on the Arctic
