Hope Beyond Coal in Greece’s Valley of Tears

A massive roll out of renewable energy in Greece’s regions in transition has quickly turned a bleak future into a bright one for the soon-to-be-former coal region of Western Macedonia.

Coal regions & power companies – once a source of the fossil fuel problems we now face – can play a pioneering role in the transition to clean energy solutions as the example of Western Macedonia shows.

With people suffering from high energy prices, volatile fossil fuel costs from the invasion of Ukraine, and climate change biting, we must speed up this work across Europe, and move beyond coal and all fossil fuels in a fast and fair way.

These are the issues brought to surface in the short documentary “Hope Beyond Coal in Greece’s Valley of Tears” by Europe Beyond Coal and The Green Tank. Among the participants:

Lefteris Ioannidis, Former Mayor of Kozani

Nikolaos Koltsidas, President of Proud Farm Group of Farmers

Ioanna Kostarella, Professor of Journalism, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Konstantinos Mavros, CEO PPC Renewables

Konstantinos Mousouroulis, Coordinator of Just Development Transition Plan

The documentary was published in July, 27 2022. You can watch it here (English subtitles):