Working Towards a Climate-Neutral Future

Challenge

To keep global heating to 1.5°C, the world needs to reach climate neutrality by 2050. The European Green Deal is the EU’s action plan to be the first climate-neutral continent by the middle of the century. For some member states, reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions is more difficult than for others. European Commission recognizes that every EU member state is at a different stage in its transformation towards climate neutrality and leaving no one behind is a key principle in the European Green Deal. For that reason, the European Commission presented the Just Transition Mechanism, which includes a €19.32 billion Just Transition Fund (JTF)¹ as one of the first legislative proposals under the European Green Deal umbrella in 2020.

The JTF supports the regions expected to be the most negatively impacted by the transition towards climate neutrality. These regions either rely heavily on energy production from coal, lignite, peat, and oil shale or are characterized by the carbon-intensive production of metals, chemicals, cement, or fertilizers. They are often structurally weak after decades of reliance on one industry branch and struggle to attract new businesses as well as skilled labour to diversify and transform their economies for a sustainable future.

To receive funding from the JTF, member states need to prepare Territorial Just Transition Plans (TJTPs), which set out the challenges in each region as well as the development needs and objectives to be met by 2030. To help member states and regions unlock the available support, the Just Transition Platform² provides stakeholders with the guidance, information, and knowledge they need to support Europe's just transition.

Solution

The European Commission (DG REGIO) engaged Guidehouse to provide supporting activities of the Just Transition Platform. Our experts are partnering with the JTF regions in several ways:

JTP Knowledge Hub — A tailor-made series of action-oriented toolkits and inspiring case studies to help JTF regions conceptualize their transformation and its implications.

JTP Groundwork — Six JTF regions are benefitting from technical assistance delivered by experts from Guidehouse in the following ways:

• The region of Łódzkie, Poland to develop an SME support scheme to diversify the economy
• The town of Sokolovsko, Czechia on strategic communication and stakeholder engagement for JTF implementation
• The region of Médio Tejo, Portugal to mobilize subject matter experts and develop retraining programs to jump-start new projects and industries in the region
• The region of Västerbotten, Sweden to attract workers and necessary skills to increase green economic development
• Riga Technical University in Latvia to create pathways to restore peat extraction sites in the Vidzeme and Latgale regions
• The regions of Hunedoara, Gorj, and Dolj in the Jiu Valley, Romania to identify potential growth industries and project opportunities for JTF implementation

JTPeers — Focused on facilitating knowledge exchange, JTPeers brings regions and experts in contact to exchange experiences and share best practices.

Impact

Guidehouse offers JTF regions comprehensive support in transforming their economy for a climate-neutral future. Our key focus in delivering these activities for the Just Transition Platform is helping regions leverage the €19.32 billion Just Transition Fund. Through our technical assistance and exchange programmes we have supported 13 regions to operationalize their JTF funds, supporting them to design procurement procedures, define new areas and industries to invest in with just transition funds, determine how to measure the success of their transitions, and determine how to reuse former coal production sites. We have also provided support to all EU JTF regions by building capacity on key transition topics and sharing best practices and experiences.

_{1European Commission. “Just Transition Fund.” n.d. https://commission.europa.eu/funding-tenders/find-funding/eu-funding-programmes/just-transition-fund_en.
2 European Commission. “Just Transition Platform.” n.d. https://commission.europa.eu/funding-tenders/find-funding/eu-funding-programmes/just-transition-fund_en.}

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