Coal regions in transition in Europe

using Grabher’s lock in concept in selected cases

Abstract

Following the Paris Climate Agreement, the European Union adopted the Clean energy for all Europeans strategy, establishing the closure of coal mining by 2036, risking 160,000 miners unemployed. For the transition process, the European Commission established an innovation fund, joint commissions and a territorial planning agency. The growing literature addresses the experience of regions that have closed down mines or are undergoing reconversion. This essay aims to contribute to the question: what has been the state's capacity to train and re-employ miners on a large scale? The essay uses bibliographic review for comparison between cases. The benchmark is the Ruhr industrial agglomeration in Germany, which ended the transition after a prolonged crisis and expelled part of the population due to the absence of new jobs, the experience analyzed by geographer Grabher, who uses the category of strong ties of the New Economic Sociology, to interpret the limitations of the Ruhr's requalification. Among the 41 regions under study in Europe, the essay selected three emblematic cases, which are located in peripheral regions with a history of resistance of the miners to changes in public policies. The essay uses Grabher’s categories to consider the state's ability to transform the miners' class into entrepreneurs on a large scale. The essay concludes that, based on the available literature, in the selected regions the State was not able to assure the level of employment before the closure of the mines, facing a lock in in conflicts with regional alliances, which defend subsidies for the maintenance of the coal production chain.

Keywords: Regional planning. Energy transition. Strong ties.