Jessica Clement
62 projects have recently been selected to receive financing from the Just Transition Fund in Hainaut (Wallonia, Belgium). In line with the three themes of Wallonia’s Territorial Just Transition Plan (energy, industry, and socio-economic development), these projects focus on a range of initiatives, from hydrogen production facilities and biomethane plants, to research support on artificial intelligence and robotics. However, to support a just transition, research carried out in Hainaut points to the need to address social and physical infrastructure gaps, in addition to the more direct investments for decarbonization.
Along the RAVeL in Tournai, near to the upcoming TECHNOPOLE site, Jessica Clement.
A just transition in Hainaut, for who?
In Belgium, there are three districts from the province of Hainaut (Wallonia) receiving support from the European Just Transition Fund – Charleroi, Mons, and Tournai. The Walloon government in partnership with its administrative counterpart, Service Public Wallonia, along with three inter-municipality organizations, devised a Territorial Just Transition Plan (TJTP) to guide the just transition and the use of financing in the province.
The BOLSTER project (Bridging Organizations and marginalized communities for Local Sustainability Transitions in EuRope) aims to understand how marginalized communities are affected by European Green Deal (EGD)-related policies and to see whether involving them in decision-making processes increases the support for transition plans. Marginalized communities are groups that are economically, politically, and/or socially disadvantaged vis-à-vis other members of society (Young, 2002). To address this question underlying the BOLSTER project for Hainaut, we engaged with women and youth in Tournai, residents of several disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the Charleroi area, and youth coordinators across the three districts.
Mobility challenges go hand in hand with the just transition
Through the extensive research in these areas through both one-on-one interviews and five different focus groups, we have identified a series of just transition priorities for the marginalized communities. Mobility, especially for youth, was one of the most cited challenges.
To contextualize the situation, one community coordinator in Charleroi explained how the current public transport network and infrastructure created barriers for youth without cars to access jobs. They described the public transport in the city as being organized somewhat like a star. A series of points extend from the city center outward to service peripheral villages. For young people without cars, this means if they need to travel from one peripheral area to another for work, they must go through the city. This trip can take over an hour, even if the neighbouring village is only a few kilometers away.
Similar constraints were also mentioned in Mons and Tournai.
Due to this situation, another youth coordinator highlighted the importance of better serving outlying industrial areas. Without a car, these areas – which serve as hubs of employment – remain inaccessible. This underscores a mobility gap, because even if just transition projects create employment, benefits may not be accessible for certain groups of people in society.
A ‘connected’ business park: A soft mobility access point for a just transition project
With the mobility challenges identified in mind, we pinpointed one ‘best practice’ from the list of the 62 selected just transition projects: the creation of the TECHNOPOLE business park in Tournai.
This project is led by a municipality (IDETA) and a Tourism Center, both in Tournai. There is a total budget slated for the project (for both the creation of the business park and the rehabilitation of a run-down, out of use workshop) of 23,720,995 euros, with 9,488,398 euros from the Just Transition Fund (40%).
The TECHNOPOLE will serve as the Mineral Circular Center (MC2)’s flagship venue. MC2 is an emerging ecosystem for the decarbonization of the earth and stone sector, focusing on topics like circular economy and recovery processes. A flagship venue will enable expertise to be condensed in a single site, to support synergies across companies engaged in decarbonization activities. The creation of the TECHNOPOLE is estimated to support 150-200 direct jobs, and up to 200 additional indirect jobs[1].
What makes this project a best practice in this case is not (only) the innovative promise of this new intellectual and physical ecosystem for decarbonization. Instead, we highlight that the TECHNOPOLE site will be serviced by a region-wide bike path, the RAVeL[2], and thus can be easily accessed by bikes and other forms of soft mobility. It was the only project identified that considered this type of mobility element.
Going forward with just transition processes
To advance just transition processes, mobility and other infrastructures (physical or social) are important components to have in place to support marginalized communities in society. In addition to projects considering this wider set of elements, just transition financing can be directed to these infrastructures. Additional funds can also be extended to micro-organizations at territorial levels that are familiar with the needs of marginalized communities, to better target gaps in current policies.
References:
Young, I. M. (2002). Inclusion and Democracy. In Inclusion and Democracy. https://doi.org/10.1093/0198297556.001.0001
[1] Project information from both a press release and a parliamentary inquiry.
[2] Additional information from short summaries of each project.
