Drawing from The Green Tank’s policy paper “National Resources for the Just Transition” and local government representatives, journalist Elvira Krithari, in her news report entitled “Just Transition: 65.6 million euros remain unused” for Kathimerini, highlighted the lack of planning for the use of the national resources from ETS revenues for the just transition, the reduction of the provisioned revenues, the significant delays in their absorption, and most importantly the problematic prioritization in their distribution.
Commenting on the key findings of The Green Tank, Nikos Mantzaris stressed that although Greece was the first country in the EU to use part of the ETS revenues for the Just Transition, their distribution was not “based on a plan, but has been fragmented and unrelated to the needs of the Just Transition”. At the same time, as he pointed out, only 2% is channeled to youth-related actions and only 5% for energy communities, despite the increased interest of citizens especially in the region of Western Macedonia.
In the same direction, local government representatives commented on the negative impact of the delays in the absorption of the resources for the just transition of lignite areas, and emphasized the need to support the youth but also the energy communities of the municipalities that will contribute significantly to the reduction of electricity costs.
The news report concludes with The Green Tank policy paper’s recommendations to overcome these problems and in particular “the use of 2020-2022 unused resources, the prioritization of youth support actions and the creation of a youth entrepreneurship ecosystem, the strengthening of energy communities and the determination of a fixed amount to be allocated annually to lignite areas to ensure predictability ‘for optimal resource utilization’ over time.”
Elvira Kritharis’ article was published on Sunday May 7, 2023 and it is available at Kathimerini.gr.
