Project
The project titled Mapping Albania’s readiness for green and just transition in post-coal mining areas assessed Albania’s readiness for green and just transition in local post-coal mining areas and identified regulatory, social, technical, and financial barriers that the country needs 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 assessed the situation of various post-coal mining sites across the country and identified elements that are necessary to enable the start and to ensure progress in reclaiming and repurposing. The project concluded with a study that is to be presented at the workshop and discussed with the local stakeholders.
Please visit a webpage dedicated to the project.
Study
To best serve the affected communities the study takes a practitioner’s approach and provides the stakeholders with a sound understanding of the socio-economic transition under way, with an assessment of the readiness of Just Transition Status of Coal Mining Communities in Albania and with a set of recommendations for possible next steps in the process.
The Just Transition Framework for Sector Decarbonization proposed in the study is intended to enable impacted communities to develop an understanding of the socio-economic transition’s needs and objectives, its constituent processes, and system elements. It shares experiences of regions going through the same transition and offers a practitioner’s approach creating transparency of the transition under way, set up a procedural and organizational framework in order to embark on the journey from a coal mining community towards a green economy.
The developed Framework provides an understanding of the fundamentals of decarbonization driven socio-economic transitions and outlines how an impacted community may assess and visualize its economic ecosystem and how it may negotiate the change process, create and develop projects towards an emerging green economy, while adjusting and balancing ecological, economic, social and participatory concerns.
For the purpose of the study, as a starting point, the Framework provides an information base and assessment of the just transition readiness of coal mining communities in Albania.
The document also presents two mini-case studies of Malmö (Sweden) and Buffalo (United States) providing a vision of how to apply the building blocks of the Just Transition Framework in practice.
The study also offers a multidimensional overview of Albania and describes the current state of Just Transition in the country’s post-mining communities.
Building upon the World Bank's three pillars approach, the document proposes a comprehensive data model for assessing the readiness of a Just Transition consisting of 8 dimensions and 5 levels.
Based on the conducted analysis, the study concludes by providing a set of recommendations and considerations, that are to be presented in detailed and discussed at the workshop.
The study JUST TRANSITION ASSESSMENT OF ALBANIA; Sector Decarbonization and the Just Transition Framework Applied to Coal Mining is available here