Energiaátmenet: a helyi önkormányzatok, hatóságok hogyan építhetik a helyi kapacitásokat és növelhetik az átmenet társadalmi elfogadottságát?
April 5, 2023
This briefing focuses on enhancing local capacities, including workers’ skills, the participation process and investment opportunities to accelerate energy transition, particularly in Hungary’s three just transition regions.
Stara Zagora: caught between its brown coal past and a bright green future
March 30, 2023
In February and March 2023, our environmental organisation Za Zemiata (Friends of the Earth – Bulgaria) organised several meetings in Stara Zagora and Galabovo in south-central Bulgaria dedicated to just energy transition and the development opportunities it offers the region. Our main aim was to involve local stakeholders whose voices have thus far been ignored. Participants included representatives of civil society, members of small and medium-sized enterprises and academics from Trakia University in Stara Zagora. Unfortunately, despite efforts to foster dialogue between business, civil society, academia and the institutions, the absence of the municipality, which was invited to attend the meetings, was notable.
The second and third pillars of the Just Transition Mechanism
March 13, 2023
The Just Transition Mechanism will provide funding to countries and regions expected to be particularly negatively affected by the transition away from fossil fuels as part of the European Green Deal. The Just Transition Mechanism consists of three sep
Assessment of Latvia’s Territorial Just Transition Plan
February 22, 2023
Latvia’s just transition regions – Latgale, Vidzeme, Zemgale and Kurzeme – are supposed to stop extracting and using peat for energy. Instead, with the help of EU funding allocated to various measures and projects through a Territorial Just Transition
What is the current state of the just transition processes in Bulgaria?
January 30, 2023
This briefing summarises just transition planning in Bulgaria thus far, reviewing the TJTPs’ compatibility with EU requirements and the overall process’s alignment with the partnership principle. It provides recommendations for improving just transition in the upcoming period.
Let the sunshine in: how a coal region in North Macedonia can switch to sustainable heating
December 21, 2022
The government in North Macedonia wants to link the 40 year old REK Bitola power plant to the regional heating system. But cementing the dependence on fossil fuels would be reckless. Instead, a new study finds that fitting houses in Bitola with air conditioning and solar panels could keep people warm, cut air pollution and even shield against increasingly volatile energy prices. Such households forming energy communities, the study shows, could not only lower initial investments but even generate them some income.
The Modernisation Fund in central and eastern Europe
December 13, 2022
This briefing gives insights into the Modernisation Fund, a funding programme to support 10 lower-income EU Member States in their transition to climate neutrality by modernising their energy systems and improving energy efficiency.
The Western Balkan power sector: between crisis and transition
December 5, 2022
As energy transition in the Western Balkans slowly proceeds, energy crisis has hit the region on four fronts: electricity prices, technical problems at coal plants, lack of water for hydropower, and skyrocketing biomass prices. This crisis is both a se
Hungary risks billions in EU funds if it goes ahead with investments in coal
October 25, 2022
Hungary is one of the countries most dependent on Russian gas and most hit by its skyrocketing prices. The real solution is to invest in …
Status of the Territorial Just Transition Plans in central and eastern Europe: October 2022 update
October 7, 2022
This briefing, the sixth in our series on the Territorial Just Transition Plans (TJTPs), provides an overview of the progress on TJTPs in seven CEE countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. It focuses on t
