The attitude of the local community towards investments in lignite before transitioning to the post-lignite era: The case of Western Macedonia, Greece

Abstract

In Greece, lignite has played a key role in energy security and has delivered notable social benefits such as local employment. Since mining projects affect profoundly the life of residents living in the vicinity of these projects, the understanding of residents' attitudes to lignite mining assumes a great importance as it can guide the design of policies. Hence, this study investigates the attitudes towards new investments in lignite mining among residents living near Greece's largest lignite center which is located in Western Macedonia. Results showed that a considerable share of residents desired new lignite projects and categorical regression analysis revealed that men desired new lignite plants more than women while, in terms of occupation, workers, undergraduate students, unemployed and private employees desired new lignite investments more than public employees and farmers. In addition, this study segmented survey respondents into three attitude groups (positive, neutral and negative) based on their desire for new lignite plants in their vicinity to indicate how the views of each attitude group on various topics related to resource extraction differentiate. As lignite phase-out is approaching in Greece, the findings of the present study may be particularly useful to policymakers in order to design a more socially acceptable decommissioning plan.