PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Of the regions in the Member States employing most workers in the coal sector and depending mostly on coal, we have chosen six highly affected by transition with a total of 6.5 million citizens:
- POLAND: Śląskie Voivodeship
- ROMANIA, Jiu Valley
- SPAIN, Asturias
- BULGARIA, Stara Zagora region
- GREECE, Western Macedonia (and Greece, Megalopolis Arcadia)
- CROATIA, Region of Istria
Based on EU SILC indicators, almost a million citizens live in energy poverty and the jobs of almost 300 thousand are directly or indirectly linked to coal or carbon-intensive industries. Therefore, the overarching objective of JUSTEM is to build regional capacity and include citizens in the development of the energy and climate plans of the regions, adapting them to their needs. Moreover, JUSTEM intends to facilitate policy development and in particular the just transition planning by increasing the uptake of sustainable energy solutions. This will be done by highlighting and bringing to the attention of a wider public the multiple benefits it brings. More specifically, the aims of JUSTEM are:
- to implement the tools and actions developed within the project in the coal regions, enabling citizens capacity building and involvement in the energy planning;
- to evaluate and properly target the energy poverty in the regions;
- to bottom-up design a pipeline of projects well prepared for financing by the Just Transition Mechanism (JTM) and other funding sources;
- and to multiply and meaningfully scale the developed project pipelines on other coal regions besides pilots and the umbrella scope of just energy transition.