With coal forever? Conflicted attitudes of residents in coal mining areas in the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland to coal phase-out

Abstract

The paper presents results of an international comparative survey with local communities living in three coal mining areas in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland. The survey attempted to answer the questions to what extent do the perceptions of negative impacts and threats of coal mining, the attitudes towards coal mining and preferences for the pace of coal phase-out differ between the study areas and which factors significantly affect them. The survey focused on residents living in municipalities near active open-cast mines, who have personal experience with both the impacts of mining on the living environment and the effects of the closure of mines on the socio-economic situation in their regions. We found out a high degree of variance in perceptions and attitudes between areas but also within areas (between municipalities and specific groups of people). The results show that residents in coal mining areas hold complex and conflicted attitudes towards coal which are affected by specific geographical conditions, the extent of landscape impacts, and people’s relationships with places, communities, and the coal industry. The significant predictors of attitudes to coal proved to be perceptions of negative environmental impacts of mining, work relationship with coal industry, age, and gender, however, these factors have different significance in various local contexts. With this paper we offer a comparative local-level approach to the just transition as a process that is far from disembodied but instead is tied to specific landscapes and places.