A global community of coal regions in transition: reflections from Climate Week NYC (22 September, New York City, USA)

European coal, lignite, peat, and oil shale regions come together in the Initiative for Coal Regions in Transition. At the same time, just transition does not stop at the European Union’s borders. In fact, at this year’s Climate Week NYC, Natalia Rudiak (Reimagine Appalachia, USA) observed that, in many ways, coal communities across the globe may have more in common with one another than with their immediate neighbours who are not as reliant on fossil fuels.

Yet, despite this global connection, access to assistance in the face of energy transition can vary by country or continent. Europe was a frontrunner in this respect, with the European Commission having already begun work on the Clean Energy for all Europeans package as early as 2015. Since then, of course, the European Green Deal quickly expanded European support for regions in transition, and now the Just Transition Mechanism mobilises around €60 billion in the years 2021-2027 alone.

For María Belarmina Díaz Aguado (Director General for Energy, Mining and Revitalisation, Asturias, Spain), European support has manifested as both financial and technical assistance, which has been essential to the region’s just transition efforts.

“When we talk about the ‘how’, the support of the European Union is very important. Nothing would have been done or could have been done without this support. Not only economic support, but also technical support.”
– María Belarmina Díaz Aguado, Asturias, Spain

Asturias, Spain has, for example, benefitted from technical assistance from the START programme, which supported the creation of the region’s first transition strategy, and drew insights from working with the City of Bytom in Silesia, Poland in the exchangeEU programme. Overall, not least thanks to this support, Asturias has become particularly known as a leader in effective social dialogue around transition, which has led the region to get buy-in from society at large, including from local governments, companies, trade unions and academia.

Across the ocean, a coalition of over 100 organisations in the mining region of Appalachia (USA) has undertaken its own push for transition support from higher governing levels. This coalition – called Reimagine Appalachia – spans multiple states and jurisdictions, all working together to create a plan for a regional economic system that prioritises good jobs, and that works for workers, communities and the environment. The resulting Appalachian Climate Infrastructure Plan was developed in 2020, and was followed by a campaign for American federal legislation reminiscent of the European Green Deal. What’s more, the federal government seems to have heard their calls, as exemplified by the $1.2 trillion ‘Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’ (November 2021), and the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ (August 2022) that allocates an additional $400 billion for climate, including for actions directly related to ReImagine Appalachia priorities.

“I see our communities as having so much in common with yours. And in some ways, our communities have more in common with some of yours than even with communities in the United States. So it’s very important that we keep up this collaboration and learn from each other.”
– Natalia Rudiak, Reimagine Appalachia, USA

This is not to say that supranational or international support does not exist outside of Europe. On the contrary, organisations like the Climate Investment Funds work with large international bodies like the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to support just transition. In fact, Climate Investment Funds’ “Accelerating Coal Transition” investment programme (ACT) looks way beyond the USA and Europe, as one of the world’s first dedicated investment platforms to address just energy transition in low-income countries. ACT’s three pillars – governance, people, and infrastructure – correspond to funding for activities such as strategy development, stakeholder consultation, reskilling, and mobilising private sector investment to facilitate the phase-out of coal and other fossil fuels.

The insights detailed in this article were shared by Véronique Marx (European Commission, Directorate-General for Energy), María Belarmina Díaz Aguado (Government of Asturias), Natalia Rudiak (Reimagine Appalachia), and Abhishek Bhaskar (Climate Investment Funds) at Climate Week NYC in September 2022, in a discussion hosted by the Initiative for Coal Regions in Transition, which drove home the connections and common ground between coal regions across the globe.

A few clear commonalities arose across every speaker’s intervention. From Europe to the United States to India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Africa (recipients of ACT support), speakers clearly expressed that coal communities must be at the heart of every step of energy transition. Furthermore, energy transition is the only way forward. As Abhishek Bhaskar explained, even looking from a strictly economic perspective, the clean energy economy is booming.

“Fewer jobs exist in coal today than in the past. On the other hand, job growth in a clean energy economy is estimated to be greater than job losses in fossil fuels.”
– Abhishek Bhaskar, Climate Investment Funds

Fortunately, given that just transition is the clear, necessary, and only path forward, there appears to be increasing technical and financial support available to ensure that communities can remain at the heart of transition, but do not have to go through this process alone.

For more information, watch the full recording of the Climate Week NYC session on the DG Energy YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/F8I30o0KkiQ. Continue the conversation at a session at COP27 on the path towards inclusive and just transition.

The Initiative for Coal Regions in Transition is open and interested in facilitating collaboration between coal, peat and oil shale regions in the EU and those in other parts of the world. For more details, contact the Initiative: secretariat@coalregions.eu.