JUST ENERGY TRANSITION IN COAL-DEPENDENT REGIONS – A CASE STUDY OF THE SILESIA REGION, POLAND

Abstract

The Upper Silesia region, historically shaped by hard coal mining and related heavy industry, is currently in a critical phase of just energy transition driven by the European Union’s goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. This article aims to assess the feasibility of this process in the coal-dependent subregions of the Silesian Voivodeship, with particular attention to institutional, legal, and spatial planning conditions. The study uses an interdisciplinary desk-based research approach based on the analysis of normative acts, strategic and operational documents, statistical data, official regional sources, and selected comparative literature on post-mining transformation and energy justice. The findings indicate that the principal challenge no longer lies in the absence of strategies or financing instruments but in a weak integration of sectoral restructuring, post-mining land governance, spatial planning, and labor market policy. The 2025 amendment to the Act on the Functioning of Hard Coal Mining improved the operational framework for mine closure and enabled asset transfers to local governments, yet it did not eliminate inequalities in access to social protection or remove the procedural bottlenecks affecting the redevelopment of post-mining land. Although the regional governance architecture has been strengthened by the Territorial Just Transition Plan (TJTP), the Regional Council for Just Transition (RCJT), and the Regional Observatory of the Transformation Process 2.0 (ROPT 2.0), the implementation gap remains substantial. The article concludes with legislative recommendations aimed at improving the implementation of a just transition in coal-dependent regions.