The Just Transition Platform was established in 2020 to help EU Member States and regions to access the support available under the Just Transition Mechanism. As one of its cornerstones, four working groups to support carbon-intensive regions were set up in November 2021. A fourth working group on horizontal stakeholder strategies, of which the Coal Commission Secretariat at the University has become a first-round member.
The aim of the working group is to bring together different groups of stakeholders in transition to jointly develop a transition vision involving local people, civil society, industry, business and academia. The Coal Commission Secretariat has so far participated in the work of the group as a second-round member, with a role of opinion and consultation. This first-round membership allows us to actively participate in all phases and activities of the work and to have an influence on the shaping of the processes.
At almost the same time, the Secretariat was also accepted to join the EU’s initiative for coal regions in transition, the District Heating Task Force. The main objective of the Task Force is to enable more detailed discussions on decarbonisation of district heating systems and to facilitate direct exchanges of views between regions and with representatives of industry, investors and the research community. The district heating working group has around 20 members and is scheduled to run from April to December.
News sent by: Zsuzsa Piskóti-Kovács PhD