The Just Transition Mechanism, established in 2020, outlines the European Union’s ambition for a climate-neutral economy, supporting coal, peat, and oil shale (coal+) and carbon-intensive regions in the transition away from high carbon energy sources and ensuring no one is left behind along the way.

The Initiative for Coal Regions in Transition established in 2017 assists European coal+ regions in overcoming the challenges associated with the clean energy transition. It connects people by easing dialogue among regions and the wider stakeholder community, delivering tailored technical assistance and capacity building, and providing supportive resources.

Climate Strategies is part of the consortium that operates the Secretariat of the European Commission’s Initiative for Coal Regions in Transition, together with Ecorys (lead), Wuppertal Institute and ICLEI. We lead the international activities of the initiative promoting collaboration and exchange between EU coal+ regions and regions in other parts of the world in support of the global energy transition.

More information is available on the European Commission website.

The initiative provides tailored support to coal regions in transition through operational in-country teams, bilateral discussions with Commission experts and  financing tools to fund transition planning.  

The country teams work with national and regional authorities of Member States to encourage the preparation of transition strategies and priority projects. At present, 20 coal regions are actively participating in the initiative:

• Silesia, Lower Silesia, Greater Poland, Lesser Poland (Poland)
• Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony Anhalt, North Rhine-Westphalia
  (Germany)
• Moravia-Silesia, Usti, Karlovy Vary (Czechia)
• Jiu Valley (Romania)
• Western Macedonia (Greece)
• Upper Nitra (Slovakia)
• Asturias, Aragón, Castilla-y-León (Spain)
• Zasavska, Savinjsko-Šaleška (Slovenia)
• Midlands (Ireland)