The Initiative for coal regions in transition in the Western Balkans and Ukraine supported stakeholders – e.g. representatives of national and regional public authorities, international organisations, energy sectors, NGOs, academia and media – in the Western Balkans and Ukraine to carry out an energy transition that is just and benefits coal regions in the long term.
By joining this initiative, stakeholders could participate in an open dialogue on phasing out coal, and also benefitted directly from the initiative's assistance on implementing a clean energy transition.
Newsletter
The initiative newsletter was published from August 2021 to February 2024. It informed readers about the initiative's activities, available support and funding opportunities as well as relevant policy developments. View all issues of the newsletter.
Webinars
From March to July 2023, the webinar series “Just energy transitions in the Western Balkans and Ukraine” explored opportunities and lessons learnt on the path to coal phase-out. In considering how to make a just energy transition a reality, the series took a coal regions viewpoint and explored examples from the EU, Western Balkans and Ukraine. Each webinar featured several experts working on implementing just energy transitions, including representatives from the coal regions in focus. All speaker presentations as well as webinar recordings with subtitles in Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian, English, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Serbian, and Ukrainian are available online:
- Planning for a just transition in light of energy (in)security
- Engaging stakeholders in just transition planning: who and how?
- Energy transition and air quality: solutions and good practices
- Opportunities to finance energy transitions
- Regions seizing coal phase-out as an opportunity for economic development
- Lessons learnt when switching from coal to renewables
- Presentations
Coal regions exchange programme
The programme was an opportunity for coal regions in the Western Balkans, Ukraine and the EU to start direct, one-to-one dialogues, connect with different stakeholders, learn from each other and transfer knowledge.
Coal regions exchange programme
Just transition workshops
From December 2022 to October 2023, the initiative secretariat organised 6 workshops on just transition. Learn more about the workshops in:
- North Macedonia (December 2022)
- Kosovo* (April 2023)
- Serbia (June 2023)
- Ukraine (October 2023)
- Montenegro (October 2023)
Events
- Annual meeting of the initiative, 27-28 November 2023
- Annual meeting of the initiative, 22-23 November 2022
- EU side event at the UNFCCC COP26, 5 November 2021
- Annual meeting of the initiative, 23-24 June 2021
- Inaugural meeting of the initiative, 10-11 December 2020
Related links
- Coal regions exchange programme
- Coal regions learning academy
- EU initiative for coal regions in transition
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.