What role for sustainability in post-fossil regional transition processes? Exploring governance conditions, actors, and transition projects in a German coal phase-out region

Abstract

ABSTRACT While the coal phase-out is progressing in many countries, formerly fossil-dependent regions receive transition funding for substitute economic activities. This can steer these regions into a sustainable future, yet it is not clear from the outset whether governance conditions and actors’ preferences are conducive to a genuinely sustainable transition. The present study examines to what extent sustainability goals shape the transition process following the coal phase-out in a German coal region (Lusatia), and the guiding logics observed therein. Three key aspects for regional transition processes are considered: enabling conditions for sustainability governance (policy coherence, participation, reflexivity, intergenerational equity); key actors and their sustainability conceptions; and the role of sustainability in selecting and funding transition projects. Based on expert interviews, policy documents, project lists, and sustainability declarations, our findings indicate that sustainability is a rather low priority for key actors. In combination with ambivalent governance conditions, this manifests as a weak sustainability focus among most resulting projects. Nevertheless, our analysis also reveals several projects focusing on selective aspects of sustainability. The phase-out therefore appears to follow the logic of signaling, and it remains unclear whether this might revert to mere energy system substitution or else aspire to comprehensive regional transformation.