The Fact-Finding Mission to Albania was organized within the framework of the RPTC project Mapping Albania’s readiness for green and just transition in post-coal mining areas aiming to assess Albania’s readiness for green and just transition in local post-coal mining areas and to identify regulatory, social, technical, and financial barriers that the country will need to address to be able to successfully reclaim and repurpose its post-coal mining areas in accordance with the principles of green economy and just transition. The project is to assess the current situation of post-coal mining sites across the country taking into account various aspects determining their readiness for transition and opportunities for future development. As a result, Fact-Finding mission allowing to obtain detailed information on multiple matters from a wide variety of different stakeholders constituted a crucial element of preparatory work for the final study.

Over the 3 days of meetings SM and the consultants hired under the project met and conducted interviews with the following: stakeholders:

• Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, 
• Ministry of Environment and Tourism, 
• Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth, 
• Albania Statistics Institution,
• National Agency of Natural Resources,
• Albania Geological Survey,
• Water Resources Management Agency, 
• Polytechnic University of Tirana, and
• a number of companies and associations from the private sector.

The Mission also provided the project manager and the consultants hired under the project with an opportunity to held additional organizational meetings among themselves to compile, systematize and discuss the obtained information and to conceptualize on that basis the scope, content, and direction of the final study.