Maintaining fossil fuel infrastructure

Governments occasionally engage in strategies to delay decarbonisation by passing laws and policies aimed at keeping carbon-intensive plants and operations running for as long as possible. This happens even where private companies are seeking to close plants because they are no longer profitable. Such strategies are essentially acts of resistance as they seek to slow down transitions. However, they are usually the result of government trying to balance economic and labour market stability with transition pressures.

In these situations, governments often devote significant public resources to ensuring plants remain operational. These policies need to be thoroughly justified to the EU in order for countries to receive Just Transition Fund allocations. However, policies in support of fossil fuel exploitation are temporary resistance strategies and usually evolve as governments develop plans for more sustainable forms of energy.