Backcasting from sustainability principles – a case from a regional climate policy process in West Sweden

Paper in proceeding, 2016

Global sustainability goals and radical innovation put many of today’s societal systems under pressure. It is a question of transitions, where new governance- approaches are sought after to guide, induce and accelerate the transitions into desirable pathways. In this paper a regional policy process aiming at creating a new climate strategy for the region is studied. The process in which 100 stakeholders took part followed a backcasting-approach from sustainability principles and had the ambition to integrate social, economical and ecological dimensions of sustainability. The results point at that principles- based approaches can play a role in addressing the complex issues ahead as they: (1) can open up for transformation by guiding thinking beyond today’s unsustainable and locked-in systems; (2) support the handling of complex issues and frame challenges for integrated measures, and; (3) form a common ground as shared mental models to in dialogue foster perspective awareness, trust-building and create new actor-constellations for future collaboration.