Category: News

The ENTRANCES project, funded by the European Union, has achieved a significant milestone with the successful conclusion of its Final Conference in Brussels on September 5th and 6th, 2023. The vibrant city served as the backdrop for a two-day event that showcased the pivotal discoveries of the project, specifically addressing challenges associated with the energy transition in thirteen regions across nine EU and associated countries entrenched in coal mining and carbon-intensive practices.

Throughout the conference, distinguished policy makers and local experts actively engaged in thought-provoking discussions, offering policy and practical recommendations at both the EU and regional levels. The primary focus was to foster dialogue and collaboration, aiming to contribute to a more sustainable and informed approach to the ongoing energy transition in these critical regions.

Ricardo Garcia Mira, the ENTRANCES project coordinator, opened the conference with a compelling address, reiterating the project’s core objectives centered on exploring the social aspects of the energy transition in the identified regions. Highlighting the significance of deterritorialization, he emphasized its crucial role in bridging the gap between territory and communities, guiding policy-making to establish vital connections.

Manuela Jane Conconi, Project Officer of CINEA, congratulated the consortium for completing 13 case studies amidst the challenges posed by the global pandemic. She stressed that while the ENTRANCES project concludes, its research work will continue to shape the future under the guidance of other researchers.

Sander Happaerts, Policy Coordinator of the Just Transition Fund – DG Region, underscored the project’s immense significance for policymakers across Europe, emphasizing the need for collaboration between local institutions to drive effective transitions.

Fabio Domanico, Deputy Head of Unit – Fair Green and Digital Transition, commended the ENTRANCES project for providing invaluable evidence on economic, employment, and social policy aspects in the study regions, shaping policies for the future.

Mags Bird from the WWF European Policy Office extended congratulations on the successful completion of the project, praising the consortium for sharing substantial and meaningful results.

Ricardo García Mira concluded the conference by summarizing key takeaways, emphasizing the imperative need for collaboration across disciplines to achieve a real transformation of territory and enhance the quality of life in the region.

The ENTRANCES project has made a lasting impact on the landscape of clean energy transition in coal-intensive regions, and the knowledge and collaborations forged during the Final Conference will continue to guide the path toward a more sustainable and environmentally conscious future.

5-6 September 2023

CSIC – Rue du Torne, 62, 5th floor, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

The EU funded Entrances project is coming to an end and is organizing its Final Conference on the 5^th and 6^th of September 2023.

This one-and-a-half-day conference will provide an opportunity to learn about and discuss the project findings and recommendations resulting from the work developed in the last three years.

Register now to secure your presence at the ENTRANCES Final Conference.

Register here: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/ENTRANCES_Final_Conference

European research projects on energy transitions in coal mining and carbon-intensive regions gathered on Tuesday, 24 January 2023, in Brussels for a Horizon Cluster Workshop organized by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA).

The objective of the event was to identify synergies and strengthen the cooperation between the various projects, avoid duplication of research studies and share learnings with EU policy makers. Ricardo García Mira (Coordinator) and Douglas Thompson represented the ENTRANCES project in the event.

During the workshop, Ricardo Garcia Mira introduced the objectives, methodology and approach of the ENTRANCES project, focusing on the theoretical and empirical understanding of cross-cutting issues related to SSH aspects of “Clean Energy Transition”, as well as the main findings of the case studies. Douglas Thompson introduced the dissemination plan of the project, including policy briefs, paper publishing, press releases, and upcoming events.

The event was deemed successful and fruitful by all participants. The workshop contributed to a significant exchange of knowledge and collaboration between research projects, which will ultimately benefit EU policy making and contribute to the goal of achieving a clean energy transition in coal mining and carbon-intensive regions.

On the margins of COP27 conference, which took place under the Presidency of Egypt in Sharm-el-Sheik from 7 to 18 November 2022, the European Union organised more than 120 Side Events on site at the European Pavillion and online.

The “Coal and Carbon Intensive Region in Transition(s) in Europe and Beyond” (CCIR) Side Event was jointly organized by the Horizon 2020 project ENTRANCES, along with its sister projects CINTRAN, TIPPING+ and TRACER and held virtually on 14 November 2022. The session was moderated by Diana Magalagiu, professor and researcher at Oxford University, Neoma Business School and the Global Climate Forum. ENTRANCES coordinator Ricardo Garcia Maria (Universidade de Coruña)participated in this Side Event along with Giovanni Caiati (Knowledge & Innovation) and Marcela Norena (Women Engage or a Common Future). The objective of this Side Event was to initiate a debate among key stakeholders, researchers, scientists and policymakers on just transition and decarbonization of CCIRs, while mitigating economic, environmental and societal risk and contributing to a sustainable development of the regions.

The Side Event allowed for a broad discussion on the processes of transition across Europe (and beyond), addressing their barriers, challenges, driver and emerging opportunities amid changing energy policies, geopolitical influence and environmental issues. Balbina Gluza-Czyczerska, a policy assistant at the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission (DG REGIO) and coordinator of the Just Transition Platform, emphasized the EC’s commitment to support a Just Transition for CCIRs and “leaving no one behind”, especially considering the increased calls for energy independency and need to speed up the process of clean energy transition.

ENTRANCES coordinator Ricardo Garcia Maria focused on the social aspect of transitions in CCIRs in his intervention at this Side Event, explaining to the audience how ENTRANCES seeked to develop a theoretically-based and empirically-fundamented understanding of cross-cutting issues associated with the processes of transition. This multidimensional approach encompasses, among other cross-cutting issues, the gender dimension and the comprehension of the region-specific energy-gender nexus.

The event ended with a Q&A session with questions from the audience, which included doubts about the meaning of just transition given the war in Ukraine, renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency measures.

Finally, the speakers exposed the key messages from their respective projects, focusing especially on stakeholder engagement and how innovation, knowledge integration and facilitation depends on cooperation between all stakeholders.

The full report and conclusions from this Side Event can be found on the ENTRANCES website. The report includes chapters dedicated to the following topics:

• The EU commitment to the Just Transition
• Going beyond carbon neutral through positive tipping point (J. David Tàbara, principal investigator of the TIPPING+ project)
• The case of Indonesia and its energy transition (Takeshi Takama, CEO of su-re.co and formerly at the TIPPING+ project)
• Implementing change and involving all stakeholders (Rita Mergner, coordinator of the TRACER project at WIP Renewable Energies)
• “Justice” is elusive, but injustices are tangible (Lukas Hermwille, coordinator of the CINTRAN project)
• Facilitating the transition in a co-creation context (Ricardo Garcia Mira, professor of Social Psychology at the University of A Coruña and coordinator of the ENTRANCES project)

You can also watch the full “Coal and Carbon Intensive Regions in Transition(s) in Europe and Beyond” Side Event on the EU Climate Action YouTube channel here.

In ENTRANCES, gender is seen as a cross-cutting issue and essential variable that contributes to a better understanding of the principal socio-economic, socio-technical, socio-ecological, socio-cultural, socio-political, and socio-psychological challenges that coal and carbon-intensive regions in a transition phase. The integration of gender into the research design and analysis aims, on the one hand, to identify gender inequalities and gaps that need to be addressed in the phase-out process, and on the other hand, to reflect on the gendered social and power structures created by the existing coal system and how they might operate to support or obstruct the transition.

Therefore, the overall objective of this report is to analyse the gender dimensions and their interaction with other social dimensions in the transition in coal and carbon intensive regions and to formulate policy recommendations for achieving transformative change and a gender just transition. This report takes up the general research questions of the project and aligns them with the issue of gender. In particular, the following questions are considered throughout the report:

1. Which gender-related challenges are coal and carbon-intensive regions in transition facing?

2. Are women and men developing different coping strategies? 3. What are the regional transitional trajectories regarding gender?

4. What kinds of gender strategies and policies are needed in order to achieve success in terms of re-territorialisation?

The Gender Analysis Report is available to download and read here.

The 13 case studies represent one of the most important milestones of the project and its overall objective of developing a theoretically-based and empirically-grounded understanding of cross-cutting issues related to SSH aspects (socio-economic; socio-technical; socio-ecological; socio-cultural; socio-political and socio-psychological; and gender related) of “Clean Energy Transition” in the selected 13 European coal mining and carbon-intensive regions.

The 13 case studies and are available to download and read. Please find free access to all case studies here.

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