Beyond a Czech-The-Box Exercise: Proposals for Meaningful Stakeholder Participation in the Just Transition

The post-carbon transition presents an opportunity to address the inequalities in economic and political power faced by (semi-)peripheral regions. One such opportunity is the European Union’s (EU’s) just transition policies. However, the EU’s policies fall short in terms of questioning existing socio-economic and power inequalities. Their implementation often relies on technocratic measures and selective expert advice. Particularly in the semi-peripheral regions of Central and Eastern Europe, meaningful – as opposed to ‘pro forma’ – participation of all stakeholders in formulating just transition policies is lacking. Using the Czech Republic – a major brown coal producer in the EU – as an illustrative case, we examine the existing obstacles to such meaningful participation and propose how to achieve it. We suggest that meaningful participation requires the direct involvement of diverse, especially underrepresented groups, such as workers in the industries at risk of job losses, and the shifting of the role of experts from a position of privilege to an equal position with non-expert stakeholders. We conclude that involving all affected stakeholders through deliberative methods opens a space to diverse just transition policies. Such policies would create an opportunity to challenge the dominant development narrative proposed by core countries and institutions.