Abstract
The sustainable development objectives adopted in 2015 by the UN as part of the Agenda 2030 [United Nations, 2015] set a new perspective for a sustaina- ble, just and inclusive future. Just transition is one of the key and multifaceted challenges. It includes transforming the economy towards a low- and zero- emission economy, while simultaneously eliminating, avoiding and limiting the social costs associated with the pro-environmental approach towards deve- lopment shaping. The current direction of the European Union’s development, manifested through the European Green Deal [European Commission, 2019b], clearly po- ints to three integral process that should stimulate member states on their path to a low-emission economy, namely, just transition, sustainable use and fair distri- bution of resources, and social justice. This approach refers to the paradigm of sustainable development and its primary goal, which is achieving generational and intergenerational justice. However, the reorientation the perception of deve- lopment processes, which sways away from the traditional understanding of such concepts as economy, environment and society (capital, land, work) in favour of an integrated and adaptive approach, turns out to be important. Achieving social justice without providing conditions for equal access to resources and just transi- tion while taking into account all social groups − is deemed impossible in this context. The European Green Deal construes just transition as ensuring equal access to environmental resources (water, clean air, green areas), employment market, and social and technical infrastructure, along with eliminating development- related disproportions to provide high quality of life and long-term growth opportunities. Such an approach clearly emphasizes the social issues, i.e., the significance of employees and local communities that experience the adverse outcomes of energy transition and reinforced environmental protection that are not limited to climate change alone [Mustata, 2017]. Just transition under Polish conditions, in terms of both media and political discussion, is often confused with energy transition, which is also dubbed “greed transition” or “green revolution” – sometimes to a degree where just transition and energy transition are considered equal. In recent years, just transition has become a downright trendy slogan, scrupulously applied by politicians, and re- presentatives of trade unions and ecological organizations. The stakes in this game are the large expectations related to just transition, for example, in the form of obtaining funding allocated by the EU for this purpose. Because of that, just transition is unfairly perceived in Poland as a way to restructure the mining and conventional energy sector. It is also credited with a causative function within EU policy that enforces changes in Poland’s raw material and energy sector. Just transition is to provide new jobs for people leaving or losing their employment in the mining, conventional energy and rela- ted industries. It goes without saying that changes in the energy sector towards a low-emission economy or energy transition (in other words), will entail signi- ficant employment market shifts in the production structures creating value cha- ins with traditional industries, notably in coal regions − where the concentration of such activities is the highest. This will mean the emergence of adverse social consequences, and in locations somewhat risen on coal and conventional energy – a significant change in the cultural identity resulting from the current, often more than 150-year-old path of social and economic development of coal regions. The inevitability of change in coal regions also constitutes an outcome of broader shifts of the entire global economy that is associated with, among others, megatrends related to increasing competition in the sector of innovations, pro- gressing economic digitization, expanding work automation and employment flexibility or reinforced globalization [Dziemianowicz, Jurkiewicz, Stokowski, 2022]. All the more, the awareness of the social consequences in coal regions due to “the emergence of a new economy” [Dziemianowicz, Jurkiewicz, Sto- kowski, 2022] points to a strong need for a comprehensive study of such areas and a strategic approach towards programming their development. The goals of this monograph include collecting and organizing knowledge, experience and studies related to just transition, and formulating strategic re- commendations for Poland’s coal regions. It is an attempt at providing a synthe- tic insight into the multi-contest situations within these areas, and indicating their specificity and diversity. This also means, by providing a supporting review of the development concept and by identifying the strategic stakes of this pro- cess’s stakeholders – formulating normative proposals for changes in the context of both the green and digital economy, as well as initiating conditions for utili- zing the process change associated with switching to a low-emission economy for the purposes of accelerating the development of Poland’s coal regions. The complexity of the addressed issue determines the structure of the paper, which is made up of three essential chapters. The first explains the stimuli and concepts associated with just transition and broadly understood region transfor- mation from the perspective of contemporary development concepts. It is sup- plemented by the preview of best practices based on selected examples of fore- ign and domestic transformation projects, illustrating the uniqueness and multitude of approaches towards implementing transformation changes. The second chapter of the study focuses on diagnosing the demographic, economic, institutional, spatial and environmental standing of Poland’s coal regions. The diagnostic analyses refer to the starting state of Poland’s coal re- gions upon the announcement of the European Green Deal. Therefore, the dia- gnostic analyses demonstrate the situation of Poland’s coal regions on the verge of a just and energy transition. The final chapter of this paper is normative in nature and contains an identi- fication of the strategic stakes of just transition stakeholders, considerations rela- ted to the selection of the development concept for individual coal regions within Poland in the perspective of their situation diagnosed in the second chap- ter, and environmental trend scenarios impacting the potential transition paths for the analysed regions. Strategic recommendations in terms of just transition constitute the essence of this chapter, and have been formulated at domestic and regional levels. The methodological aspect of the monograph covers a number of tools and techniques employed within social studies. The first chapter is conceptual and employs a domestic and foreign source literature review and case study analysis, based on, among others, the experiences of the Authors acquired in the course of the EuroStar2020 project contest. The typically diagnostic second chapter was based on statistical analyses, a review and systematization of secondary mate- rials, GIS analyses and portfolio analyses. The third chapter was based on inte- rviews with just transition stakeholders from Poland’s coal regions (conducted in the years 2020-2021), strategic foresight tools and intervention logic (related to formulating strategic recommendations). It should be stressed that this publication results from the involvement of its Authors in a number of tasks associated with programming just transition for Poland’s coal regions, including the following activities implemented under: Proposed recommendations for the field of just transition [Drobniak et al., 2020], National Just Transition Plan [Institute of Industrial Area Ecology, Mini- stry of Climate and Environment, 2021], Territorial Just Transition Plan for the Śląskie Province1 [Marshal’s Office of the Śląskie Province, 2021], Territorial Just Transition Plan for Eastern Wielkopolska [Marshal’s Office of the Wielko- polskie Province, 2021], Territorial Just Transition Plan for the Łódzkie Province2 [Marshal’s Office of the Łódzkie Province, 2021], Territorial Just Transition Plan for the Dolnośląskie Province3 [Marshal’s Office of the Dolnośląskie Province, 2021], Territorial Just Transition Plan for Western Małopolska [Marshal’s Office of the Małopolskie Province, 2021], tasks implemented under a research and development project entitled Programme framework for integrated planning of just transition at domestic and regional levels4, the Assumptions for the Just Transition Priority Programme Financed by the Modernization Fund project [Drobniak, 2022], as well as over 250 meetings, presentations and consultations with the stakeholders of just transition in Poland’s coal regions. The scope of implemented work, access to information on transition-related processes and the determination of strategic stakes of individual just transition stakeholders would not be possible without the commitment of a number of per- sons and institutions. Given the above, we would like to express our gratitude for cooperation to the following people: Krzysztof Gadowski – Sejm Standing Committee for Just Transition, Michał Kurtyka, Adam Czetwertyński, Ireneusz Zyska, Marcin Janiak, Nata- lia Kwit, Agnieszka Sosnowska – Ministry of Climate and Environment, Artur Soboń, Michał Godlewski, Ewa Rewakowicz – Ministry of State Assets, Waldemar Buda, Daniel Baliński, Renata Calak, Mikołaj Korsak, Daniel Kotkowski, Piotr Siewierski, Piotr Zygadło – Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy, Paweł Olechnowicz, Krzysztof Wójcik – DG REGIO, Jakub Chełstowski, Wojciech Kałuża, Małgorzata Staś, Stefania Koczar-Sikora, Anna Dudek, Urszula Macharz, Joanna Miśka, Dariusz Stankiewicz – Marshal’s Office of the Śląskie Province, Grzegorz Macko, Justyna Lasak, Agata Zemska – Marshal’s Office of the Dolnośląskie Province, Bogdan Kawałko – Marshal’s Office of the Lubelskie Province, Maciej Kozakiewicz, Monika Urbaniak, Małgorzata Zakrzewska – Marshal’s Office of the Łódzkie Province, Joanna Urbanowicz, Bożena Pietras-Goc – Marshal’s Office of the Małopol- skie Province, Wojciech Jankowiak, Maciej Sytek5 – Marshal’s Office of the Wielkopolskie Province, among local government units: Kazimierz Karolczak – Górny Śląsk-Zagłębie Metropolis; Marcin Krupa, Mariusz Skiba, Katarzyna Staś, Agnieszka Hajduk- -Smaczniewska – Katowice City Hall; Michał Bieda, Tomasz Janik, Robert Białas – Bytom City Hall; Michał Pierończyk, Michał Adamczyk – Ruda Śląska City Hall; Anna Hetman6 – Jastrzębie-Zdrój City Hall; Roman Szełe- mej, Marcin Augustyniak – Wałbrzych City Hall; Magdalena Stupurewicz- -Cierkosz – Oświęcim City Hall; Tomasz Kiliński – Nowa Ruda City Hall; Justyna Chrebela – Jaworzyna Śląska City Hall; Joanna Gawron – Rydułtowy City Hall; Adam Lipiński – Knurów City Hall; Magdalena Jasek, Łukasz Kobielusz – Brzeszcze Communal Office; Ewelina Lis, Wioleta Stawska- -Kamieniak – Bełchatów City Hall; Magdalena Kozak – District Starosty in Chrzanów, Grzegorz Rabsztyn – European Investment Bank, Maciej Chorowski, Artur Lorkowski, Marta Babicz, Marcin Jamiołkowski, Barbara Miałkowska, Adam Wadecki – National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, Maciej Jeleń, Patrycja Wodyk – Regional Development Agency in Bielsko- -Biała, Maciej Sytek, Krzysztof Borkowicz, Michał Rajewski – Regional Deve- lopment Agency in Konin, Wojciech Zasoński – Karkonosze Regional Development Agency, Tadeusz Pogonowski, Mirosław Skibski – Industrial Development Agency, Branch in Katowice, Dariusz Stępczyński, Błażej Mielczarek – Bełchatowsko-Kleszczowski Park Przemysłowo-Technologiczny Sp. z o.o., Stanisław Prusek, Jan Bondaruk – Central Mining Institute, Marta Pogrzeba – Institute of Industrial Area Ecology in Katowice, Dariusz Prostański – Institute of Mining Technology KOMAG, Jakub Kupecki, Grzegorz Tchorek – Institute of Power Engineering, Artur Kozłowski – Institute of Innovative Technologies EMAG, Agnieszka Ragin, Alicja Piekarz, Piotr Hayder, Justyna Orłowska – National Centre for Climate Change – Institute of Environmental Protection, Krzysztof Brzozowski – “Free Entrepreneurship” Association – Centre for Energy Technologies in Świdnica, Ryszard Sobański – Sudety Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Janusz Olszowski, Agata Zielińska – Mining Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Barbara Pokorny, Zenon Tagowski – Western Chamber of Commerce – Em- ployers and Entrepreneurs, Anna Karaszewska – Polish Confederation of Employers “Lewiatan”, Anna Hetman, Franciszek Dziendziel, Leszek Żogała, Jacek Latko, Adam Grzesiuk, Marcin Połomski, Adrianna Kordiak-Woryna, Natalia Mazur – As- sociation of Mining Communes in Poland, Dariusz Trzecionka, Waldemar Lutkowki, Bogusław Studencki, Piotr Cza- rzasty, Grzegorz Trefon – “KADRA” Trade Unions with the “KADRA” Trade Union Forum, Alina Pogoda – Polish Green Network, Mirosław Proppe, Marta Anczewska – WWF Poland. We would also like to thank all of the more than 2 thousand just transition stakeholders, whom we have met, consulted and interviewed, but who are diffi- cult to mention individually. Owing to the frequent consultations and contacts, it is worthwhile to mention the representatives of: ENERGA S.A., EXATEL S.A., FAMUR S.A., Handerek Technologies Sp. z o.o., JSW Innowacje S.A., Kato- wicka Specjalna Strefa Ekonomiczna S.A., LW “Bogdanka” S.A., MMG Sp. z o.o., Neo Energy Group Sp. z o.o., PGE S.A., PGG S.A., PGNiG S.A., PGZ S.A., Polenergia S.A., RE Alloys Sp. z o.o., SRK S.A., Sumitomo SHI FW Energia Polska Sp. z o.o., Synthos Dwory Sp. z o.o., TAURON S.A., Towarzystwo Fi- nansowe “Silesia” Sp. z o.o., Wałbrzyskie Zakłady Koksownicze „Victoria” S.A., ZE PAK.