Just Transition Planning Toolbox

The Just Transition Development Plan for lignite areas in Western Macedonia defines a series of “principles” that guide the vision for the region’s development and transition planning. It also identifies “pillars” or sectors that are envisaged to be important in the region’s future economy, which can be used as the basis for economic diversification support programs.

In the area of workforce redeployment, the plan references background analysis of the skills available across the region, the estimated redeployment potential in growth sectors, and reskilling needs to maximize this redeployment in practice.

Beyond employment and reskilling, the plan describes other actions to address the social, economic and environmental impacts of a decline in the lignite industry, including:

• Support for the creation of new energy industries, including photovoltaic parks and alternative district heating sources in areas affected by closure of lignite units.
• Social programs to manage workforce retirement from the lignite sector, involving fully self-financed voluntary exit/retirement.
• Engineering works to rehabilitate former lignite mines.
• Spatial planning strategies that encourage redevelopment of lignite areas, these include accelerated planning approval and licensing processes, and tax incentives.
• Flagship projects mobilizing private investment into new or emerging sectors ranging from technology and manufacturing sectors to tourism, agriculture, and health industries.
• Public infrastructure projects including improvements to road and railway networks, natural gas supply, district heating infrastructure, and high-speed broadband.
• Policy and fiscal reforms including financial support for building energy efficiency upgrades, incentives for development of electromobility, and prioritization of lignite areas for new renewable energy projects.
• Mainstreaming just transition clauses into broader government legislation and policies.

The Midlands pathway document was developed in the context of the phase out of peat production and use in Ireland, recognizing the impacts this will have on specific communities and groups connected with the peat economy.

The Pathway is an early stage planning document, intending to map out a process for ensuring just transition in the Midlands region, in the short and longer terms. It does detail objectives and measures that should help facilitate a just transition in the Midlands region, and describes various project proposals registered by communities and organizations. The initial Pathway document is not an exhaustive list of measures that will be needed to manage transition. It will be a dynamic plan, meaning additional and more detailed measures will emerge over time. Part of its purpose, therefore, is help guide ongoing partnership working during the region's journey towards a just transition. The document also then reflects on capacity and support needs that will enable communities to become active agents in the transition process, and also considers governance and resources issues. It delineates various phases (or regional transition “pillars”), where the focus of transition planning and the types of activities needed will evolve over time.

• During the first few years of change (Pillar 1), attention is focused on: mitigating the negative effects of enterprise restructuring and redundancies; assessing and securing related assets and legacies; enhancing community, social and citizen resilience and enabling adaptation; re-orientating regional capacity to deal with transition; preparatory investigation/research, innovation and investment for realizing future opportunities; and developing a project inventory.
• From circa year 3 onwards (Pillar 2), focus will be on the scaling-up and acceleration of regional investments relating to energy transition, economic diversification, infrastructure, environmental and biodiversity enhancement, and the utilization of assets.
• In the period beyond year 5 (Pillar 3), more significant structural change is expected, including productivity and equity gains predicated on energy transition, smart specialization and growth in emergent sectors, and on the repurposing of regional assets.

The plan recommends several actions to facilitate a just transition in the region. One of the main recommendations is the establishment of working groups of various stakeholders that can help to assist projects by coordinating activities and resources and accessing relevant funding and programs.

The Taranaki 2050 Roadmap is a high level framework to guide the development of a transition plan to a low-emissions economy, outlining the region's vision for a low-emissions economy and the steps needed to achieve it. The content of the roadmap was defined through an inclusive co-design process involving stakeholders in the Taranaki region.

The plan is organized as follows:

• Introduction: This section provides an overview of the roadmap and explains why it was developed.
• The Roadmap: This section outlines the 12 transition pathways, which are a mix of sectors and enablers, that will help Taranaki achieve its vision for a low-emissions economy.
• Trends: This section describes significant trends expected to impact Taranaki in the future, including climate change, technological advancements, and changing demographics.
• Co-design process: This section explains how the roadmap was developed through a powerful process of co-design that involved starting with a blank sheet of paper and involving the people of Taranaki in creating the content.
• Implementation: This section outlines how the roadmap will be implemented, including governance arrangements, funding mechanisms, and monitoring and evaluation processes.

The Roadmap will be supplemented over time by a series of Action Plans, which will provide more detail on the short-term actions and medium-term strategy needed to achieve the region’s long-term goals and vision for 2050.

European countries need to prepare Territorial Just Transition Plans (TJTPs) in order to access funding support under the European Union’s Just Transition Mechanism.

The content of these plans is expected to describe:

• The expected transition process and timeline, considering any relevant national plans and commitments to promote a low carbon transition. It is suggested the plans distinguish “declining sectors” (those expected to cease or significantly scale down their activities) from “transforming sectors” (those expected to undergo a transformation of their activities, processes and outputs).
• The regions within the country that are likely to be most affected.
• The likely economic and employment impacts in different regions and sectors, along with an assessment of requalification needs that take account of skills forecasts and emerging opportunities for work.
• The development objectives for transition, including the results expected to be achieved by support programs.
• The strategies, or support activities, that are envisaged to address the negative impacts of transition.
• The governance mechanisms for coordinating the transition planning process, and other functions like monitoring and evaluation of its implementation.
• How the process will ensure public participation.
• The alignment between the plan and other key policies and planning documents.