Transition pathways for carbon-intensive regions

The transition to a climate-neutral economy will be particularly demanding for regions that rely heavily on fossil fuels or on greenhouse gas (GHG) intensive industrial activities. While economic activities based on fossil fuels will face an irreversible decline, sectors with high GHG emission intensity levels (notably metals, chemicals, cement and paper) will need to transform. 

GHG emissions in energy-intensive industries are linked to energy use as well as industrial processes. The significant decrease of industrial GHG emissions that is needed to reach the 2030 targets and 2050 objectives will rely in part on efficiency gains, but it will also require changes in production patterns and deployment of technologies that do not yet exist at full scale in many cases. Such technological transformations will require significant investment starting now, to avoid lock-ins and stranded assets.

This session zooms in on the challenges and opportunities for industries undergoing decarbonisation and analyse the transition pathways for regions dependent on these industries. The session introduces novel evidence about the GHG-intensity of EU territories and the employment in ETS installations. It will kick-start a discussion on the social impacts of the transition to climate neutrality in GHG-intensive regions, such as the need for reskilling workers to accompany the technological transformations.

Chair: Rudiger Ahrend, Head of the Urban Programme, Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development, OECD

10:00 – 10:15 Welcome and introductory remarks

Rudiger Ahrend, Head of Division on Economic Analysis, Data and Statistics, Centre for Entrepreneurship , SMEs, Regions and Cities, OECD

10:15 – 11:30 The transition to climate-neutrality in carbon-intensive regions: social and economic impacts and potential pathways 

Matteo Mura, Director of the Centre for Sustainability and Climate Change, Bologna Business School, Department of Management, University of Bologna (Italy)

Dovile Jonaviciene, PPMI (Lithuania)

Birgitta Bergvall-Kåreborn, Vice Chancellor, Luleå Technical University (Sweden)

Daniel Neale, Lead Social Transformation, World Benchmarking Alliance  

11:30 – 12:00 Q&A and panel discussion