The city of Kozani, located at the heart of Western Macedonia’s energy axis, plays an important role in promoting a just transition to a low-carbon economy. Eleftherios Ioannidis, who served as mayor of Kozani from 2014–2019, has been a crucial figure in promoting a just transition. Perhaps most notably, he has formed a coalition with other local mayors and the regional government and raised awareness at national and EU levels. In 2016, Ioannidis and WWF Greece began to advocate the creation of a National Just Transition Fund (NJTF) for lignite regions by inspiring a joint movement of mayors and other stake­holders from lignite regions. In April 2019, the Greek government estab­lished the NJTF. The fund will invest €30 million from CO2 auctions over a period of 3.5 years.

Over the past two decades, Pittsburgh has intro­duced various measures to shed its reputation as a ‘Rust Belt’ city and establish itself as a centre for biomedical research, banking, and education. In 2017, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto released plans for major invest­ments in renewable energy infra­structure, including programmes that would provide a ‘just transition’ for former coal miners, as part of a holistic approach to climate change mitigation.

In contrast to most of Nord-Pas-de- Calais, the coal community of Loos-en-Gohelle took early action to implement a sustainable transition process following the closure of the local mine. Until 1986, Loos-en-Gohelle was one of the main coal-mining towns in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. It is now considered a best-practice example of a community-led energy transition. Today, the city is a tourist desti­nation and a centre for green research and development.

Since German reuni­fi­cation, Lusatia has imple­mented various strategies to support regional economic devel­opment and facil­itate necessary struc­tural change. The region has culti­vated a strong tourism industry by promoting local attrac­tions, including the Spreewald Biosphere Reserve and, more recently, the Lusatian Lake District, a chain of artificial lakes extending across 140 km² of former open-cast mines. Faced with multiple challenges related to struc­tural change, Lusatia is building on its long tradition as an energy region and on the related know-how of regional research insti­tu­tions and business actors. Today, the region is home to solar and wind parks and a factory for wind turbine blades.

In Pueblo, a city in south­western Colorado, the local economy was dependent on coal and steel production for much of the city‘s history. However, as the coal industry’s success began to fade, Pueblo charted a new path forward, aiming to become a low-carbon city and regional hub for renewable energy production. Support for the transition grew as a result of grass­roots campaigns, local government initia­tives, Xcel’s Colorado Energy Plan, and the devel­opment of the world’s largest wind tower factory in Pueblo.