ABSTRACT
Residents’ personal and social resources, including “trust in the developers”, “seeing the wind farm site from home” and “information about the wind farm” further influenced how they perceived the costs and benefits of a proposed wind farm. Attitudes towards the environment and the place also played a role but were minor factors influencing residents’ opinions about a wind farm. Whether governments try to support gradual change in the energy sector by stimulating niche energy social innovations or pursuing more rapid and abrupt top-down driven change, they will have to face issues of participation and acceptability by the public and stakeholders. Trust is a pivotal element influencing energy social innovations and community energy schemes in general. This research confirmed that trust is a crucial variable that affects local opinion about proposed wind farms and co-operative schemes. Distributional justice policies leading towards more egalitarian societies will most likely support a per capita decrease in carbon emissions in high-income countries.
