Banovići and Lukavac: seizing a chance for development

Even though the leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the Sofia Declaration and its Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, as well as accepted all the conclusions of the recently held COP26, their implementation can hardly be seen. And every year, around this time, the topic becomes hot due to the air pollution predominately caused by coal-fired heating or electricity. The country is yet to adopt its coal phase-out date, and with approximately 60% of its energy generated in thermal power plants, one must ask: How and when are the leaders of the country going to carry out everything they promised to do?  A demographic at risk of being most affected is the miners and other workers in the mining industry and, consequently, the majority of the inhabitants in mining regions. 

Banovići municipality: end of an era and a chance for development

Upon entering Banovići, a small town in the Tuzla Canton, one gets a true sense of the social identity built around coal mining. Buildings, names of streets, and the local handball club called "Rudar" – meaning miner – are all testaments to this identity. Coal is considered a treasure here. This perception is amplified in the mayor’s office where we meet. Statues of miners are exhibited in prominent places and the mayor, Bego Gutić himself comes from a long lineage of miners. His father and brothers bought food for the family from their miners’ salaries. As soon as we start talking, the mayor opens up about his biggest concern: 2800 locals working in the mining industry. That is nearly half of the total number of people employed all over the municipality that has a population of 20,000.

He explains that during his "open Fridays", when every citizen has a chance to come to his office and talk about pressing matters, he hears more and more concern about the possibility of shutting the mines down and fears about the social and financial impact on the living standard of the citizens.

Everyone is aware that the resource that helped them and their families thrive in the past will soon become obsolete. A plan B has to be hatched as soon as possible, so that life can continue in this small Bosnian mining region, even after the gradual closing of the mines. Presently, there are 700 miners under the age of 40 working in the local coal mines. Their destinies and the destinies of their families are at stake now and require a fair and balanced approach to the energy transition.

Gutić continues that it is hard for local communities to devise any strategies without the upper levels of government, adding that sometimes there is a feeling that the local communities are more interested in finding sustainable solutions than top levels of government are, despite their official positions on the matter. His reflection echoes the findings of the soon to be published FES SOE study on the inclusive energy transition as an opportunity in Southeast Europe.

"What we need is an alternative. Being aware of the global energy tendencies, we have to think of what we can do to keep our standard of living", says Gutić. He offers some good examples of the local economy with transferable skills, saying "We have a textile industry that produces mostly mining equipment but they are capable to switch to another segment of textile production. We can expand on our lumber industry, tourism, food production, and services. For all that we need investments and to attract investments we need a business zone."

They are not wasting time. To attract the investments, and with limited available funds, they have already started working on the Banovići business zone. The plan is to build it on a space that would stretch on 250,000 square meters. Ideally, some of the funds promised under the Sofia Declaration will be used for this purpose.

The mayor is certain that with the infrastructure and some serious investors, Banovići will have a chance at successful transition. To develop local tourism, the municipality is also planning to free up some additional funds by selling unpromising mining assets. At least, these are some of their ideas and more concrete plans are still in the making.

The future shouldn’t bring fear and uncertainty

Besides financial aid, Gutić adds, what they need most is advice on how to do it. Seems like a reasonable request considering that they have never encountered a transition such as this one. Help in the promotion of the narrative that the future brings a chance for development and not fear and uncertainty, is also welcome. The mayor is doing what he can. To respond to the magnitude of the challenge and thanks to Gutić’s devotion to just transition, the municipality is planning to employ a full-time project manager for cooperation with the EU bodies working on transition. They are looking for a young local that speaks several languages and has good knowledge of the problems the mining industry is facing. That person would write projects and go to study visits of other mining regions that have successfully gone through the transition that yet awaits Banovići. Our meeting ends like it started, with a concern for locals’ health. Citing different reasons for coal phase-out, Gutić hopes that a phase-out would end health issues caused by coal pollution, which whole families have had.   

Edin Delić: "Unanswered questions, unrealistic expectations and the threats of decarbonization"

Our next stop on the tour of coal regions in Tuzla Canton is Lukavac; another small community where the importance of the mining industry and legacy is just as strong. Miners are still local heroes. Edin Delić, the mayor, is a mining engineer by trade and, despite Lukavac being one of the applicants to the Initiative for coal regions in transition in the Western Balkans and Ukraine’s exchange programme, our meeting starts with him questioning COP26, the EU Green Deal and almost everything transition-related. To prove his point, he offers a glimpse into the paper he is writing titled: "Unanswered questions, unrealistic expectations and the threats of decarbonization".

Delić agrees that decarbonization is a scenario that certainly awaits the world in the future, but he insists that he, just like anyone else living in the coal regions, has some questions nobody is answering and concerns nobody is addressing. 

Personal responsibility for local miners

"What I always ask and never get a satisfying answer to is: how is closing the mines going to create new jobs? We all know renewables such as solar and wind don`t need that many people operating them. To be clear, I fully support energy transition but only after all the conditions are met," Delić explains. "First we have to have a clear vision, where these people are going to work after closing the mines, how to achieve energy efficiency, energy sovereignty, avoid energy poverty – and then we gradually close the mines and thermal powerplants.“ 

"Today we plan for the next 15 years", he goes on. "We need to know in advance our energy needs, our infrastructural needs and we need to be aware of the real state of affairs on the ground. Only then we can work on development strategies. The municipality of Lukavac has the ambition to be one of the leaders of decarbonization and a progressive place, but I feel personally responsible for our miners and I cannot allow myself to rush into something that could collapse our economy." He voices his fears of depopulation, bringing up multiple examples he has seen in the rest of the world.

Already working on the alternatives

Fearing that his step-by-step wishes might not materialize soon enough, Delić explains how the municipality is already attracting foreign investments. A couple of miners have transferred from the mines to a German-based factory that manufactures parts for hydroelectrical powerplants. New factories are being developed and none of them have, as Delić says, "polluting chimneys." They are all technologically advanced and as green as possible. The biggest company in the municipality is still the cement factory, which is part of the hard to abate industries. Talks about its transformation are not even in their infancy – at least not publicly. Yet, the company and the municipality are conducting a joint project on planting 20,000 new trees together.

Much like Banovici, Lukavac municipality is certainly interested in EU projects and study trips to learn from other local communities that successfully transitioned from coal to other industries. Even though EU project funds are already available, Delić also feels that the upper government levels are slowing projects down. Another area of improvement is communication and cooperation between mining regions. Lukavac has great relations with Pljevlja in Montenegro and Velenje in Slovenia. If they could form a union that would include other similar regions in the Western Balkans, they could have a stronger voice in Brussels and they could propose projects that they as locals deem important. Through unity, Delić believes, great things for the local communities can be achieved and nobody would lag. Just as the inclusive energy transition should be.

Nikola Bačić