The ENTRANCES project partners are delighted to see that the Upper Styria case study has recently been published in the Austrian newspaper “Der Standard”.
The article reflects how the shift away from CO2-intensive economies, such as the local steel industry in Upper Styria, is bringing about major changes for the region. The 13 case studies of the project are mentioned, along with the distinction between coal-intensive and carbon-intensive regions, and how the methodological approaches put in place in ENTRANCES aim to create comparable findings across all of the 13 case studies.
The article also addresses a number of challenges specific to the Upper Styria region, such as a decline in an already ageing population and an image problem of the industry that originated in the 1980s, which stands in contrast to the reality of a flourishing industrial sector with a growing demand for human resources.
Please find the full article and more information on the Upper Styria case study here
Register now for the co-creation session on coal+ regions in transition, which will take place next week in Rome (Italy), in the context of the ENTRANCES (H2020) project. More information about the co-creation meeting will be available soon: https://connect.portici.enea.it/e4q8ri6lirbw/event/registration.html
On 13 October 2021, Smart Citizens for Decarbonisation, an online webinar was successfully held. Aiming at reflecting on the social effects of decarbonisation policies, several interesting experiences from mature European carbon-intensive territories were shared in the event.
On 13 October 2021, Smart Citizens for Decarbonisation, an online webinar was successfully held. Aiming at reflecting on the social effects of decarbonisation policies, several interesting experiences from mature European carbon-intensive territories were shared in the event. Participants made presentations about the role of regional and local government in promoting inclusiveness and citizen’s engagement when combatting the undesired effects of decarbonisation.
Professor Garcia-Mira from University of A Coruña was the keynote speaker of the event. In his presentation, Professor Garcia-Mira showed us a conceptual approach to integrate the socio-economic-psychological change of the energy transition into the regional innovation planning process by introducing the concept of engaging citizens. He gave answers to several questions in his speech such as what engaging citizens are and what incentives the governments and society could provide to booster citizen engagement. A change in the governance of the system which requires informed and responsible citizens alongside laws that regulate citizens’ participation, are, from his view, what is needed in order to engage citizens. One specific project called ENTRANCES can be a perfect example of how to involve citizens. It is a project that requires a set of co-creation scenarios to achieve the transition of clean energy in the social aspects. The project has different objectives in many aspects of society hence, it requires a multidimensional and interdisciplinary perspective to resolve the problem. He elaborated on how they will bring together different members involved in the project across regions. In the end, he presented an interesting case about coal mining regions and carbon-intensive regions, illustrating how different countries, regions, industries and organizations can work together to cope with challenges.
Through this, people got to know more about the real experience of conducting projects. One story was presented by Jan Sienkiewicz who has been working for the Regional Development Agency in Bielsko-Biała for 17 years. In his sharing, he introduced his tasks and initiatives in relation to sustainable development and low emissions that have been carried out in the agency. Furthermore, he showed us how the city cooperates with different regions and agencies by joining the Covenant of Mayors. Several interesting environment-related projects that local governments and citizens are currently taking part of were presented as well by Jan Sienkiewicz.
What cannot be ignored when we analyse regional economy and innovation is the power of the youth. In this section, Mr Kostas Karamarkos, co-founder of Just Transition Institute Greece, made a presentation about views on decarbonization. The context is that by 2028, all ignite power plants will cease to operate in Greece resulting in the loss of many jobs in this industry as well as adverse impact on regional economy. He expanded this issue to the role that the youth may play. He said that despite the financial crisis and the fact that many young people are leaving their hometown, young people are still the main driver for innovation and thus should be the target of actions and funds. The society should invest on the youth via universities. He explained how Just Transition Funds can help and support the youth to overcome the structural changes that are happening now.
Another story shared to participants is about decarbonization and employment in which Ms Émeline Beaume encouraged the audience to live a green life and governments to offer citizens more carbonized services. She also introduced a training course that has been set up since last July named “Biogas Maintenance Technician,” which is about ecological transition aimed at giving people job opportunities. It is of great importance for everyone in their own territory as she emphasizes, to take actions about employment in the context of ecological transition. Ms Natasa Djordjevic, the Assistant Director of the Regional Agency for economic development of Sumadija in Serbia, also addressed and expanded the topics of skills and employment and talked about resolutions of her agency in dealing with the issue. The event ended with a question-and-answer portion with the panelists.
Coal regions in the Western Balkans, Ukraine and the EU are invited to join an exchange programme to accelerate just local energy transitions. The programme is an opportunity for regions to start direct, one-to-one dialogues, connect with different stakeholders, learn from each other, and transfer knowledge.
The call for applicants who wish to join the peer exchange programme was launched at the initiative’s annual meeting on 24 June 2021. Coal regions in the EU, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo[*], Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Ukraine are invited to participate in the exchange programme. EU regions that are former coal regions, or are frontrunners in relevant fields (e.g. renewable energy technology, smart specialisation) are also welcome to apply.
Participating regions will be paired based on their interests and expertise, and will select topics relevant to coal phase-out to be explored in-depth. Priority will be given to forming pairs made up of one coal regions from the Western Balkans or Ukraine and one coal region from the EU. However, this is flexible and needs-based.
All participating regions will benefit from funded study visits, knowledge exchange, and expert support. In addition to tailored expert support, regions will access advice from their peers through hands-on learning opportunities, and will gain access to tools and support to help them reflect on and evaluate their transitions so far, and map out their next steps.
Interested applicants are invited to apply by 15 September 2021. Information on eligibility and application process is available at the programme’s webpage.
[*] The designation of Kosovo is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence
The meeting is promoted by ENTRANCES, a Horizon 2020 project that aims to develop a deeper understanding of cross-cutting societal issues related to the “Clean Energy Transition” in 13 European coal and carbon-intensive regions.
The main objective of this co-creation meeting is to trigger and help drive dialogue to ensure that the future results of the ENTRANCES project can support EU policies, contribute to bridging the current knowledge gap, and produce policy recommendations to tackle the multiple challenges faced by communities in the European coal and carbon-intensive regions.
The co-creation meeting is divided into two sessions. In the morning session, discussion will be focused on the recent impacts of the EU policies and on the presentation of the ENTRANCES project. The afternoon session will be dedicated to exchange of experiences among European and International coal and carbon-intensive regions in transition and among different European research projects focused on these issues.
The co-creation meeting includes the participation of representatives of the European Commission, EU Coal Regions in Transitions Initiative, European and International coal and carbon-intensive regions, other related Horizon 2020 projects, and European researchers and academics.
The ENTRANCES project
The co-creation meeting will introduce the ENTRANCES project’s EU-level policy guidelines. An overview of the project’s perspective on coal and carbon-intensive regions in transition is provided below.
De-territorialisation and re-territorialisation
In the project’s view, in common with many other territories all over Europe (for instance shrinking cities, small islands, mountain regions, rural areas and border regions), coal and carbon-intensive regions are very vulnerable to globalisation and technological change. In such territories, megatrends such as digitisation, ageing populations, urbanisation, market globalisation, and, obviously, climate change and related policies, are found to be painful to the local communities as they can generate forms of de-territorialisation – the process of progressive weakening of the ties between a community and its territory. Regions dependent on fossil fuel-based industries and/or the extraction of fossil fuels themselves can find that the transition towards clean energy and a climate-neutral society is a further and powerful path towards de-territorialisation. At the same time, the transition toward carbon neutrality is a key opportunity to trigger re-territorialisation processes under which new vital links between the community and its territory can emerge.
The multiple dimensions of transition
ENTRANCES highlights how the transition of coal and carbon-intensive regions can be better understood by combining a plurality of dimensions that characterise the changing relationships between a community and its territory. These include those which are more system-oriented, such as the socio-economic, socio-ecological and socio-technical dimensions, and those which are more connected with citizens’ subjectivity, such as socio-political, socio-cultural and socio-psychological. Moreover, the project adopts a gender-sensitive perspective which is crosscutting for all these aspects. The ENTRANCES research unveils the different dimensions, including those which are often hidden or under-addressed, and provides evidence on how they relate to each other, across different geographical scales and socio- economic and cultural contexts in Europe. After conducting 13 regional case studies, ENTRANCES will develop a Multidimensional taxonomy of trajectories, challenges and coping strategies to describe the different situations of the European coal and carbon-intensive regions in transition.
EU policies for re-territorialisation
One of the goals of the project is to inform the EU strategies that aim to support the re- territorialisation process of coal and carbon-intensive regions. These EU strategies play an important role. They include both the EU Coal Regions in Transition Initiative, which has experimented in and fostered mutual learning across coal and carbon-intensive regions in transition, and other EU initiatives such as Smart Specialisation Strategy which are focused on regional and territorial development. In the ENTRANCES’ view, an improved understanding of the differentiated sets of de/re-territorialisation dynamics of these regions will contribute to delivering EU policies that are more able to foster the regions’ endogenous development and create virtuous relations across the different scales of territorial governance.
The co-creation process
The co-creation meeting is an opportunity for the ENTRANCES project to better connect with the EU policy agenda. This will help the project contribute to addressing the knowledge gap for supporting the re-territorialisation of regions and territories that risk being “left behind” in the transition towards clean energy. The meeting will collate input from different angles and stakeholders: EU policymakers, regional stakeholders, researchers of the ENTRANCES’ sister projects and members of the project’s scientific advisory board. The co-creation process is organised in the following steps, corresponding to different sessions of the meeting.
Opening
The opening will be dedicated to welcoming the participants and presenting the different institutions involved in the meeting. This opening is aimed at fostering an enabling environment for the co-creation work.
Morning Session
The background elements to help inform the co-creation work will be presented. This includes a presentation of the ENTRANCES approach, and of the strategy of EU Coal Regions in Transition Initiative and the knowledge gap. This session is also aimed at discussing the role of the EU in supporting coal and carbon-intensive regions in transition, and exploring the knowledge gap and identifying how the research can contribute to filling it. The session will collect the viewpoints of the EU policymakers from different DGs and inform the co-creation activities of the afternoon session.
Afternoon session
The discussion will be broadened to regional stakeholders – including European and International regions – and the researchers of the sister projects. The session will be centred on an exchange of experiences on the hidden dimensions of transition and how to address them, and the process through which to translate research results into ‘actionable’ policy recommendations at the EU level. The session will be held in three parallel rooms.
Wrap-up
The inputs from the three rooms will be shared in plenary, and a wrap-up and conclusions from the co-creation process will be provided by Ricardo Garcia Mira (ENTRANCES Project Coordinator).
Outcomes and next steps
The outcomes of the meeting will be summarised in a note and circulated among the participants, and will be the basis for developing the project’s EU policy recommendations.
The meeting is the first step of an interactive process that foresees a cross-disciplinary co- creation meeting (Rome, April 2022), and 13 regional co-creation meetings (November 2022), aimed at co-creating targeted practical recommendations for the regions involved in the ENTRANCES project.
OPENING Introduction to ENTRANCES co-creation meeting. Prof Ricardo GARCÍA – University of A Coruña. ENTRANCES. EU policies for coal and carbon intensive regions. Ms Aleksandra TOMCZAK – European Commission. Member of Cabinet of the Executive Vice President for European Green Deal Frans Timmermans R&I social effects of decarbonisation. Ms Manuela CONCONI – European Commission. Project Officer – CINEA.
11h20
BACKGROUND ELEMENTS FOR CO-CREATION EU Coal Regions in Transition Initiative: strategy and knowledge gap. Dr Anna SOBCZAK – European Commission. DG ENER. The ENTRANCES project approach. Dr Giovanni CAIATI – K&I. Dr Manfred SPIESBERGER – ZSI. ENTRANCES.
11h45
CO-CREATION PANEL Moderator: Mr Paul BAKER – Coal Regions in Transition Initiative. Facilitator: Mr Markus OTTER – ZSI. ENTRANCES.
Panel selection to co-create: Dr Sander HAPPAERTS – European Commission. DG REGIO. Dr Frank SIEBERN THOMAS – European Commission. DG EMPL. Dr Gerd SCHÖNWÄLDER – European Commission. DG RTD. Prof Glynis BREAKWELL – University of Bath. Dr Robert POLLOCK – Coal Regions in Transition Initiative. Ms Anke STOCK – WECF Women Engaged for a Common Future. ENTRANCES.
13h00
LUNCH BREAK
AFTERNOON SESSION Chair Mr Esteban PELAYO – EURADA. ENTRANCES. “Introduction and guiding to rooms”.
13h45
BROADENING THE CO-CREATION
Room 1 Moderator: Dr Elena DE LUCA. ENEA
Speakers Prof Oliver HOLTEMÖELLER.IWH Mr Nkosinathi NKONYANE Mpumalanga Provincial Gov Ms Rita MERGNER. WIP. TRACER Ms. Miłosława STĘPIEŃ Akcja Konin
Respondent: Prof Robert KNIPPSCHILD. IOER
Room 2 Moderator: Mr Fabio FEUDO.K&I.
Speakers: Prof Andrei HOLMAN. UAIC. Dr Yang XIU. Tsinghua University Dr David TABARA – or – Mr Konstantin WINTER. GCF. TIPPING.plus Ms. Katarzyna IWIŃSKA. Collegium Civitas
Respondent: Ms Anja Rhuleman. WECF
Room 3 Moderator: Prof Christian KLOCKNER. NTNU
Speakers: Prof Lidia GAWLIK. IGSMiE PAN Prof Roberto SCHAEFFER University of Rio de Janeiro. CINTRAN project Ms. Chiara SOLETTI. Climate Network
Respondent: Dr Richard FILCAK. CSPS
15h00
WRAP UP & CLOSURE. Synthesis of the input from the three rooms. Prof Robert KNIPPSCHILD. IOER; Ms Anja Rhuleman. WECF; Dr Richard FILCAK. CSPS
Conclusions. Prof Ricardo Garcia. University of A Coruña.
Room Splitting during the afternoon parallel sessions
ROOM 1
Participants with role: Moderator: Elena DE LUCA (ENEA); Respondent: Prof Robert KNIPPSCHILD (IOER). Speakers: Oliver HOLTEMÖELLER (IWH); Nkosinathi NKONYANE (Mpumalanga Provincial government); Rita MERGNER (WIP Munich) or Rainer JANSSEN (TRACER); Ms. Miłosława STĘPIEŃ (AKCJA KONIN). Open discussion participants: Stefania BARCA (CES UC); John THØGERSEN (AU); Marika KUSHAN (WECF); Owen BROWN (EURADA), Giacomo FRISANCO (EURADA), Marta FDEZ.- PRIETO (Universidad de A Coruña), Emilia-Cornelia DUNCA (University of Petrosani), Gloria POPESCU (ISPE Proiectare si Consultanta), Francisco LUEIRO GARCIA (Asociación Ecologista ARCO IRIS).
ROOM 2 Participants with role: Moderator: Fabio FEUDO (K&I). Respondent: Ms Anja Rhuleman (WECF) Speakers: Andrei HOLMAN (UAIC); Yang XIU (Tsinghua University) David TABARA (GCF) / Konstantin WINTER (TIPPING.plus); Ms. Katarzyna IWIŃSKA (Collegium Civitas) (TBC). Open discussion participants: David UZZELL (SURREY); Nora RÄTHZEL (UMU); Philip J. VERGRAGT (CLARKU); Laura NORRIS (CU); Nachatter SINGH (UDC); Rosa ESCAMILLA (EURADA), Esteban PELAYO (EURADA), Gabriele QUINTI (K&I), Sérgio FERREIRA ALVES (SPI), Simone ROSINI (DG Employment), Douglas THOMPSON (Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI)), Simona POPUSOI (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi).
ROOM 3 Participants with role: Moderator: Christian KLOCKNER (NTNU). Respondent: Dr Richard FILCAK (CSPS). Speakers: Lidia GAWLIK (IGSMiE PAN); Roberto SCHAEFFER (UFRJ); Wolgang OBERGASSEL (Wuppertal Institut)/ Michaela ROELFES (CINTRAN); Chiara SOLETTI (Climate Network). Open discussion participants: Beatriz CASADO (ICE); María Rosaria DI NUCCI (FU Berlin); José DONOSO ALONSO (UNEF); Tristam BARRETT (IOER); Anja RÜHLEMANN (WECF), Marta TEJERINA (EURADA), Ivana Rae ALMORA (EURADA), Nuno CAETANO (SPI), Natalia DEJEAN (WECF France), Francisco REY VIZOSO (Universidad de A Coruña), Jasmina MANDIC LUKIC (Energoprojekt Entel).
The co-creation meeting promoted by ENTRANCES Horizon 2020 Project will take place next 10th of June from 11h00 to 15h30 (CET).
The main objective of this meeting is to trigger and help drive dialogue to ensure that the results of the ENTRANCES project support EU policies, produce policy recommendations to tackle the multiple challenges faced by communities and contribute to bridging the current knowledge gap for supporting the re-territorialisation of regions and territories that risk stay left behind in the transition towards clean energy.
It is divided into the morning session, where the recent impacts of the EU policies and the ENTRANCES project will be discussed; and the afternoon session, which will be focused on the exchange of experiences among European and International coal and carbon-intensive regions in transition and among European research projects focused on these issues.
Representatives of the European Commission, EU Coal Regions in Transitions Initiative, European and International coal and carbon-intensive regions, other related Horizon 2020 projects, and European researchers and academics will participate and share their ideas and thoughts.
The event also gathered several distinguished individuals including Dirk Beckers (Director of INEA), Aleksandra Tomczak (Member of Cabinet of the Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans at the European Commission), and Peter Berkowitz (Head of Unit, DG REGIO – Smart and Sustainable Growth). The concept of Just Transition regions and the Just Transition Mechanism were explained by the EC representatives including aspects of the Just Transition Fund implementation and the platform.
Following the know-how sharing and development sessions, the projects got the opportunity to present and showcase the key challenges undertaken by each in the context of Clean Energy Transition. Towards the end of the workshop, a dedicated session on coordinating dissemination actions between all four projects was held in which the projects jointly presented how they are cooperating on grounds of website management and updates, newsletter development, social media cross-dissemination, among others.
With the objective of extending the visibility of ENTRANCES outside European boundaries, European Association of Development Agencies (EURADA) is conducting a call for mirroring regions outside of Europe that are facing similar issues when dealing with decarbonisation policies.
Purpose of the call and involvement
The call has been organised to select three organisations (to be identified as “Peers Regional Organisations”) from coal mining and carbon-intensive regions of Africa, America, and Asia. These organisations will be involved in the co-creation process of ENTRANCES, in order to discuss the policy recommendations that the project will produce. The chosen organisations will also be invited to participate in the following meetings:
First meeting of the project in Brussels (May 2021) and the last meeting of the project in Brussels as well (April 2023) (alternatively, online in the event of travel restrictions or other similar circumstances); and
The co-creation meetings that will take place in the pilot territories of the project (online if necessary).
The organisations will be committed to disseminating the project results among their networks and internationally, as well as actively participating in the co-creation process of the outputs mentioned above.
Requisites of the organisation
The organisation should have a regional working scope.
The organisation should be dealing with issues related to the coal or carbon-intensive nature of the region.
The organisation should have a practical approach to the matter.
The organisation should play a relevant role in the decarbonisation process, or in the coal-mining and/or carbon-intensive activities.
Submission of proposals
If you are willing to participate in this call, please send to ENTRANCES@eurada.org the below:
CV and contact details of the person in the organisation responsible for the involvement
The offers will be selected according to the following criteria and scoring:
Their belonging to a region characterised for the coal and/or carbon-intensive activities.
How closely the organisation is dealing with issues and process that emanate from these activities (decarbonisation process, technical support for economic transition, unemployment derived from these transitions, etc.)
The capacity of the organisation to propose a person, or a group of people, with remarkable expertise in the field. This is to say, capacity to communicate and to disseminate among other people the knowledge acquired during the co-creation meeting, and to transfer the experience and knowledge from the region to the co-creation meetings.
In order to facilitate enhanced dissemination of the results of ENTRANCES in other European coal mining and carbon-intensive regions beyond those already involved, project partner EURADA is building a Board of Regional Stakeholders. The Board will be composed of experts working hands-on to support implementation of the green transition. European Association of Development Agencies (EURADA) is looking for regional actors and policy makers from regions in transition, who can share with the ENTRANCES consortium their experiences, best practices, action plans, and views on their specific challenges and opportunities. This is aimed at creating significant added value for the project.
During the lifetime of the project, the experts from the Board of Regional Stakeholders will be invited to the below project meetings:
One methodological workshop
13 regional co-creation meetings
One EU policy co-creation meeting
Several virtual follow-up meetings
The experts will have the opportunity to present their respective case including insights on how they are coping with the de-carbonisation process and its social impacts, such as de-territorialisation. In this way the overall scope of the project will grow further paving way for collection of perspectives of additional regions and stakeholders. At the same time, participation in these activities will keep the regions participating in the Board up to date with the project findings and developments.
If you are interested in being part of the Board of Regional Stakeholders, please contact entrances@eurada.org.
The ENTRANCES project conducted its kick-off meeting from May 5th to 7th, 2020 with a high scientific and institutional participation, and taking on the challenge of modeling the social impact of the energy transition. Due to the pandemic COVID-19 crisis, the meeting was decided to be held virtually.
The opening session was attended by Mrs Laura Martín, member of the Office of the Vice-Presidency of the Government of Spain, Professor Amparo Casares, Vice-Chancellor for Sustainability of the University of A Coruna (Spain), host of the coordination team, Gerd Schonwalder, Policy Officer of the ‘SSH aspects of energy transition’ within the DG of Research and Innovation of the EC, Manuela Conconi, Project Officer at the INEA, EC, as well as more than 50 researchers connected from 14 European research organizations in 12 European countries.
In a globalised context, many European regions are exposed to the deep and sometimes painful transformation of their social, economic and cultural life. The clean energy transition, if not properly managed, may become an additional and decisive factor of “deterritorialisation” for those regions that are still heavily dependent on fossil-fuel-based industries or the extraction of fossil fuels themselves, i.e. coal and carbon-intensive regions.
A new 3-year project, ENTRANCES, will investigate the challenges facing carbon-intensive regions in transition – hinging on the idea that the transition to clean energy should not be considered only as a technological change or an industrial shift but also a socio-economic-psychological process that affects the daily life of local communities. The project will integrate, in a single research framework and in a cross European study focused on 13 coal and carbon-intensive regions, socio-economic factors, political dynamics and deep territorial transformations linked to the energy transition. The project follows the European strategy to reduce emissions by up to 40% from 1990 levels and pursues the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, as a frame of reference. It will analyze processes of de-territorialization and re-territorialization in 13 European mining regions from a socio-economic, socio-technical, socio-cultural, socio-politcal, socio-ecological, socio-psychological and gender perspective. It will develop understanding from scientific evidence and knowledge based on interdisciplinary and inter-organizational dialogue, in which more than 3,000 people will participate, including scientists, organizations and stakeholders from all over Europe. The ENTRANCES consortium is formed by 14 high quality groups with excellent theoretical and methodological expertise, as well as an International Scientific Advisory Board for specific expert advice.
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