Transitioning beyond coal: Lessons from the structural renewal of Europe’s old industrial regions

The research examines the capacity of 'old industrial regions' (OIRs) to transition from declining mature industries to new growth paths. It utilizes the Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) framework to analyze 'lock-in'—functional, cognitive, and political—that hinders diversification. Using examples like Germany's Ruhr region, the paper argues that successful renewal requires 'regional branching' based on existing capabilities and a shift from top-down mandates to inclusive, bottom-up 'regional development coalitions'. It provides a typology of innovation support and warns against the 'regional resource curse' where renewable energy transitions may fail to create localized value.

• Old industrial regions (OIRs) often suffer from 'lock-in', where the same socioeconomic conditions that previously drove success become obstacles to innovation. This manifests as functional lock-in (rigid inter-firm networks), cognitive lock-in (group-think and limited imagination), and political lock-in (dense public-private ties preserving traditional structures).
• Successful regional diversification is most likely to occur through 'regional branching', which involves the recombination of related knowledge, skills, and competencies already present in the region's existing industries, rather than radical, unrelated diversification.
• The restructuring of Germany's Ruhr region demonstrates that transition is a long-term process requiring a shift from 're-industrialisation' (trying to save old industries) to 'neo-industrialisation' (focusing on sunrise technologies). Success was facilitated by the Emscher River International Building Exhibition (IBA), which used a bottom-up approach to create 'regional development coalitions'.
• Coal regions can leverage specific assets for transition, such as converting mining infrastructure into tourist attractions (e.g., the 'lakeland' in Lusatia or the Zollverein museum in the Ruhr) or redeploying engineering skills into the renewable energy sector.
• There is a risk of a 'regional resource curse' in the energy transition, where resource-rich regions remain at the low end of renewable energy value chains, hosting basic resources and initial processing while value-added activities and profits are exported.

APA

Campbell, S., & Coenen, L. (2017). Transitioning beyond coal: Lessons from the structural renewal of Europe’s old industrial regions. Climate Strategies. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Transitioning-beyond-coal-Europe_2017_final.pdf

Chicago

Campbell, Stephanie, and Lars Coenen. Transitioning beyond coal: Lessons from the structural renewal of Europe’s old industrial regions. Climate Strategies, 2017. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Transitioning-beyond-coal-Europe_2017_final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Campbell |first1=Stephanie |last2=Coenen |first2=Lars |title=Transitioning beyond coal: Lessons from the structural renewal of Europe’s old industrial regions |publisher=Climate Strategies |date=November 2017 |url=https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Transitioning-beyond-coal-Europe_2017_final.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{campbell2017transitioning, author = {Campbell, Stephanie and Coenen, Lars}, title = {{Transitioning beyond coal: Lessons from the structural renewal of Europe’s old industrial regions}}, institution = {Climate Strategies}, year = {2017}, month = nov, url = {https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Transitioning-beyond-coal-Europe_2017_final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }