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Friday, 26 June 2020

Webinar on Redevelopment Opportunities for Coal Regions

The Institute for Sustainable Development of the European Public Law Organization (EPLO) and the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) organized a webinar on: "Investing in the Future: Redevelopment Opportunities for Coal Regions”.

The webinar took place on Tuesday, June 30, 2020 from 13:00 until 14:00 (Athens time).

Program:

Welcome by Spyros Kouvelis, Director of EPLO Institute for Sustainable Development and Jorge Núñez Ferrer, Senior Research Fellow, CEPS, Moderator.

Gerassimos Thomas, Deputy Minister of Environment & Energy, in charge of Energy and Natural Resources, Greece

Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reform, European Commission

Zhecho Stankov, Deputy Energy Minister, Bulgaria (TBC)

Q&A and debate

 

"Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, almost 70% of coal plants were to be closed in the EU by 2030. With Covid-19 existing stress in coal regions has aggravated. Closure of coal assets however will affect the jobs of more than half a million people in direct and indirect activities, and deeply touch the regions, requiring industrial transformation for example in the form of diversification. There are many successful examples of such transformation across the whole of the EU for coal and non-coal regions alike. On the back of rapidly falling costs for renewable energy and storage solutions – many of them ready-to-go – and the opportunities that the increasing demand for low-carbon value chains offer, the Next Generation EU recovery and Just Transition funds can be the additional crucial catalysts for this development. If successful, reward will be investment in new and future-proof technology investment, potentially including manufacturing opportunities that are now or in the future might be located outside Europe".

Link to the CEPS paper: “The time for rapid redevelopment of coal regions is now” (link to the Greek version here)

You can watch the event recording: here

 

 

tags: Institute for Sustainable Development, EPLO, CEPS, webinar, coal regions, redevelopment opportunities