Coal, green growth and crises: Exploring three European Union policy responses to regional energy transitions

Abstract

Despite increasing interest in energy transitions in the European Union, little attention has been paid conceptually to regional energy transitions in terms of development nor to the potential regional impacts of cumulative policies. A contextual understanding of regional energy transitions in Europe is therefore lacking. To address this gap, this paper considers regional energy transitions from a political economy perspective, using an institutional lens and critical varieties of capitalism approach to examine European Union policy responses within the scope of innovation driven and growth based regional development. Policy responses for regional energy transitions are first structured using crises as turning points and then explored in three themes: an energy transition with roots in coal regions; an energy transition that harnesses the green growth agenda; and an energy transition intensified by multiple crises. Going beyond the traditional economic aspects of regional policy and acknowledging the contradictions of green growth, critical reflection on these themes calls into question the extent of policy responses to address the potentially diverse regional futures enabled through the energy transition. Considering the aim of territorial cohesion, renewable energy resources and green innovation capacities can be seen as either sources of prosperity or aggravators of existing inequalities. Further attention is therefore needed toward current understandings of regional development in light of policy objectives and the sustainability ambitions of regional transitions. While limiting this analysis to the green growth logic, the arguments acknowledge critical perspectives that can potentially be brought into European policy perspectives for sustainable regional development.