Regional Industrial Transitions to Climate Neutrality

Some manufacturing activities are among the most difficult human activities to make climate neutral and they are typically regionally concentrated.  Across Europe these regions are often socioeconomically relatively weak. Yet these sectors provide relatively well-paid jobs in many of these regions. Some of these regions may also have more difficult access to infrastructure to provide the hydrogen, carbon capture and storage and zero-emission freight, which can be important to some of these activities. Industrial transitions to climate neutrality therefore have regional development implications. Since regions differ in their socio-economic conditions, understanding these regional development implications will help policy makers prepare a just transition. This publication identifies manufacturing activities that are particularly difficult to decarbonise and the transformations they require. It shows how these activities are distributed across European regions, focusing on employment at emission-intensive production locations. It identifies conditions for getting access to needed infrastructure and how access conditions differ across regions. It investigates the socio-economic vulnerabilities of affected regions, their manufacturing businesses and workers. In some regions, workers and firms may be particularly vulnerable, for example, because of low-skill jobs, type of employment contract or low productivity.