Perspectives on Legacy Injustices, Coping Strategies, and Elite Governance

This deliverable report consists of three academic article manuscripts synthesizing and further developing research conducted in work package 4 on Responses and Impacts and the project in general.
The first paper provides a perspective on legacy injustices created by the fossil fuel system. It reflects learnings from the entire CINTRAN project. The paper argues that current approaches to Just Transition for coal-dependent regions in Europe are neglecting the legacy injustices created by the fossil fuel industry.

The second paper consolidates research conducted on the basis of the CINTRAN Inventory of Coping Strategies originally submitted as Deliverable D4.2. We find that decarbonisation is progressing rapidly and different actors respond to its impacts in different ways. Whether these responses seek to resist decarbonisation, adapt to new realities, or fundamentally transform the social and economic conditions that define decarbonisation contexts depends on the actor groups in question and the resources they are able to draw upon.

Finally, the third paper builds on the work on the role of elite actors previously reported in the second periodic report of the CINTRAN project. It is closely related to the analysis submitted D4.4. As decarbonisation policies are rolled out across Europe, there are cascading and disruptive impacts on those who live and work in carbon-intensive regions. New realities are emerging across these regions, shaped by varying degrees by the power of elite actors. This paper uses a mixed-methods data set of newspaper data, focus groups and interviews to examine how elites are shaping, and shaped by, responses to decarbonisation policy – and the consequences of this.