Nancy Brett, Linköping University
The role that natural gas should play in transitioning to a sustainable energy system has been examined with questions regarding the balance between decreased emissions and potential lock- in to fossil fuel being asked 123 . At the same time, the bio-based equivalent, biomethane, with its molecular equivalence to natural gas, is purported to be a more sustainable, albeit limited, long- term solution 4,5 . The paper seeks to understand how biogas (biomethane) and natural gas are constructed as part of a sustainability narrative and co-exist in a market, using the Swedish regional perspective to exemplify. Market shaping scholars have argued that markets are more than buyer and supplier dynamics. Instead, they should be conceptualised as an ongoing process of stabilising and destabilising activities 6–8 . A step alleged to be part of the establishment of the building of a market is the construction of the narratives, which occurs by defining the value of the product, improving product perceptions, and in the end, normalising the market and creating new expectations of the new technology or product 9 . Employing this theory, this paper asks what narratives support the co-existence of natural gas and biogas acting as compliments within the same market and how this narrative has changed over the last 12 months, considering the impact of the war in Ukraine on European gas markets.
