15. December 2022Coping together: united communities & engaged governments for a just transition – A Recap

 

The fourth CINTRAN capacity building event for the coal+ regions provided an expert overview of the inventory of coping strategies and what it means for communities and governments. The event was aimed at practitioners from coal+ regions in Europe and beyond it. 

All across Europe, people, organisations, and institutions are coping with the pressures introduced by decarbonisation policies and their implications. At the CINTRAN project, we have identified three main strategies in coal+ regions: 1) actors can resist decarbonisation activities, 2) adapt to decarbonisation and the changes it creates or 3) attempt to transform the existing system through fundamentally new ways of thinking, acting, doing and organising regions. CINTRAN has developed a public inventory of coping strategies, but what are the lessons coal+ regions can learn from them?

The event was opened by keynote speaker Marie Claire Brisbois (University of Sussex), presenting her and fellow colleagues research on 11 regions across Europe. The research group collected 400+ stakeholder actions in response to decarbonisation and grouped them into 40+ coping strategies aforementioned. The main key outcome from this research was that strong, empowered, and included civil society are key to ensuring both the success of decarbonisation projects, and the wellbeing of citizens.

The webinar continued with three panelists, featuring Maren Krätzschmar (University of Münster/TH Köln), Annela Anger-Kraavi (University of Cambridge), and Magdalena Svorcova (Trencin Region, Slovakia), representing Germany, Estonia, and Slovakia respectively. 

Specifically, Maren Krätzschmar (University of Münster/TH Köln) called for a broader integrated framework of the just transition in Germany that includes the impacts beyond the economic and energy ones. She emphasized that participation and inclusion of other actors is key to expanding this perspective. Maren’s take away from this discussion was  that “Regional transformations that go beyond adaptation strategies but create fundamental social, technical, and economic change require the sharing of power with civil society actors and communities.”

Annela Anger-Kraavi (University of Cambridge) then looked at the energy transition in Estonia, including the outmigration of citizens, and specifically youth, due to the historical disempowerment within decision-making processes. She stated, “More attention to a just transition and the managing of it is an interesting development, specifically not only that we do it, but how we do it with a focus on leaving no one behind.”

Finally, Magdalena Svorcova (Trencin Region, Slovakia) asserted the need in Slovakia for effective policy and communication across scales to ensure that citizens don’t lose faith in a just transition: “Securing an effective and truly just transition of coal regions requires sustaining the momentum and continuation of working together with all stakeholders and real people on the ground. Delivering information and communicating with a language everyone understands can build sound and cooperative partnerships.”

With this webinar, CINTRAN hopes participants have a better understanding on how coal+ regions’ governments steer the way through the just transition, specifically how a successful transition requires involving a variety of stakeholders and perspectives. 

Dive deeper into the discussion by watching the full webinar on “Coping together: united communities & engaged governments for a just transition” here. 

Find the slides of keynote speaker, Marie Claire Brisbois (University of Sussex) here. 

Still wanting more? Don`t miss our next webinar! Look out for all the latest info on the event series here.