Mapping Albania’s readiness for green and just transition in post-coal mining areas

Background

UNECE works on mapping the readiness of its member States for Just Transition of their coal mining regions. For that purpose it undertook efforts to:

Map the location of post-coal mining areas across the ECE region and analyze their current condition,
Analyse the legal framework governing ongoing activities and plans aiming to ensure safety and re-development of the selected post-coal mining areas,
Develop detailed economic, energy, environmental, and social characteristics of the selected post-coal mining areas,
Identify elements that are necessary to enable the start and continued progress towards their repurposing and transformation,
Develop geographic information systems (GIS) database that will incorporate the collected information to provide maps and other graphical displays of data inmdicating the current status of the selected post-coal mining areas.

Project

In that context, upon the request from Albania, the Sustainable Energy Division developed a project proposal that has been approved for implementation under the Regular Programme of Technical Cooperation.

The project titled Mapping Albania’s readiness for green and just transition in post-coal mining areas aimed 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 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. It built on recommendations provided by the previously completed study on mine closure in Albania and provided some recommendations on what could be done to successfully implement them.