Spanish unions are advocating for a comprehensive strategy that extends beyond the closure of plants to reinvigorate affected regions by connecting public services with employment opportunities and investment.
Manuel Riera from UGT, one of Spain’s prominent unions, emphasized the broader implications of power plant shutdowns in rural areas: “When a power plant closes in a rural area, you don’t just lose jobs,” he stated. “You risk losing the life of the place – the families, the neighbours, the school, the bus line. To keep people rooted, we have to rebuild whole economies.”
The primary objective is to protect workers, diversify rural economies, and maintain family ties to their communities.
Spain’s Innovative Approach: Dialogue and Regional Agreements
Spain stands out as one of the few nations to manage coal plant closures through negotiated territorial agreements. Since 2018, these agreements, totaling 15, have been formed among national, regional, and local governments in areas impacted by mine and power plant closures. Furthermore, the government has secured tripartite agreements with both unions and coal companies, ensuring solutions for those affected.
“For the first time, workers and their communities had a seat at the table. It demonstrated that a just transition is possible and that social dialogue with trade unions must be the first step,” Riera noted. “That gave people dignity in a moment of loss.”
These agreements have funded retraining, supported job-creating initiatives, and ensured active public participation, serving as a global example of how social dialogue can steer decarbonization efforts.
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The initiatives have highlighted limitations, notably that job creation alone is insufficient to sustain rural life.
Riera shared, “Again and again we heard: in addition to employment, what decides if families stay is whether there is transport, housing, health care, education. That is what keeps a territory alive. We have to move from an energy transition to a social transition.”
Judit Carreras Garcia, head of the Instituto para la Transición Justa (ITJ), elaborated on the government’s response to these challenges:
“Over the years, we have sought to make the just transition a reality through concrete policies and actions — walking the talk through a wide range of measures that include employability schemes, training, funding lines for job-creating business initiatives, just transition energy tender grids, municipal support programmes and environmental restoration,” she explained.
“All of them aim at minimising the impacts of decarbonisation and optimising outcomes based on participation and social dialogue. This effort has come with its own challenges — from managing timing gaps to addressing very different territorial starting points — but our commitment remains firm.”
Both unions and the government recognize the importance of proactive measures: closures should align with new opportunities, and support should adapt to varying regional circumstances, from areas facing depopulation to those with robust infrastructure.
The Future of Spain’s Just Transition
UGT is collaborating with its federations to develop Spain’s forthcoming Just Transition Strategy for 2026–2030. Visits to regions like Aragón, where a coal plant was shut down in 2020, reveal growing frustration.
Riera expressed the sentiment: “People are tired of waiting. We have projects on paper, but they don’t see them materialising. Without effective coherent planning, workers retrain and then have to move to Madrid or Barcelona. That is not territorial justice.”
The unions are advocating for a territorial approach that spans ministries and sectors, ensuring that services and infrastructure evolve alongside job opportunities.
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Behind the technical debates lies a deeper fear: the hollowing out of rural Spain, where thousands of villages have already lost their young people and their future. A mishandled transition could accelerate that trend.
“This is not only about jobs,” Riera said. “It is about whether towns survive at all. When a power station shuts, it’s not just the jobs inside the gates that disappear. The bus stops running, the school risks closing, the clinic can’t keep going, housing starts to deteriorate. Families leave, and a town empties. And once they leave, they rarely come back.”
Global Sharing of Spain’s Experience
In September, Riera engaged with international unions to convey Spain’s journey. His core message was the necessity of social dialogue and territorial agreements as foundational elements, not final goals, of a just transition.
He stressed, “If decisions are only made in the capital, they miss what life is like in a village. What Madrid sees as energy policy, a small town sees as survival: will there still be a bus, a clinic, a school? That is why workers and communities must always be in the room.”
Riera sees the just transition as an opportunity not only to shield people from loss but to rejuvenate rural life, making villages attractive for families and offering children a vision for their future. “This is about dignity, but also about love: love of place, love of community, love of life itself.”
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A Vision for Belém and Beyond
At COP30 in Belém, Riera is conveying a straightforward message to global leaders: Spain’s experience underscores the need for a ground-up approach to the just transition. He advocates for the Belém Action Mechanism to incorporate cross-sector transition plans, not solely energy policies, and to ensure worker and community participation alongside public financing capable of supporting both jobs and essential services.
“The Global South faces the same challenge: how to transition without abandoning people. Without public finance, that is impossible,” he emphasized. “If we treat the just transition as a bargaining chip, we betray them. But if we take it seriously, we can create hope — from Spain to Brazil, from Santander to Belém.”
He concluded, “This is not only about closing coal or opening renewables. It is about whether people can imagine a future for their children. That is what the just transition means.”
Original Story at www.climatechangenews.com