Challenges and opportunities for a just green transition in North Macedonia

In order to limit the increase of temperature to 1.5oC and below 2oC above pre-industrial levels the Western Balkan countries and the European Union, following the Paris Agreement, adopted the 2050 decarbonization goal. The green transition approach in North Macedonia remains a top-down process and poses challenges on implementing a just transition that embeds place-based policies. The communication among central and local government levels and stakeholders remain vague, opening the research question about the proper mix of just transition, participation, legislation adoption and the quality of policy making and governance configuration that should be able to serve spatial and social justice to be able to implement a place-based governance framework. We use targeted survey to assess the green transition policy of the government of North Macedonia if it is just and if it respects the place-based approach. The results suggest that the place-based approach is weakly implemented, decisions remain centralized and following the top-down logic undermining local participation. We recommend further, more detailed analyses of the place-based transition and decentralization efficiency with focus on local government barriers to more just green transition.