The sustainable development at the community level: A case study of Sweden

The research focuses on sustainable development at the community level in Sweden. Following the trend of sustainable development, the concept of distributed energy has emerged in the European Union. Authorities at all levels in Sweden have also actively promoted the deployment of distributed energy projects. Thereby the sustainable development of community-level has begun to flourish. The study selects five relatively mature sustainability cases to explore sustainable development at the community level in Sweden. Three cases are from Sweden, and the remaining two comparative cases are from Germany and Denmark. Based on qualitative research and case study, the thesis studies the implementation of relevant cases. It analyzes the differences and related challenges between the three Swedish communities and the German/Danish case regarding sustainable development. The study shows that all community cases have set the energy transition in the transportation sector as a priority in the plan. While paying attention to the energy transition, the three Swedish communities also pay more attention to the improvement of social equality and welfare in sustainability. Therefore, compared to the cases in the other two countries, the sustainable development of the three Swedish communities seems to be more balanced. However, whether for the three Swedish communities or the German/Danish case, there are still many challenges to realize the integration of sustainability strategies into community development