Coal communities as the territories with special conditions for development: creation of growth points in the process of decarbonization

The article is devoted to the revealing of imperative requirements for the renovation of economic structure of coal-extracting territories, and to the elaboration of the recommendations to expand the opportunities of growth points’ creation in their economies in the conditions of limitations of economic potential engagement due to the obligations to decarbonize industrial activity. Based on the analysis of modern approaches to strengthening the development of coal-extracting territories, are revealed the need to combine the tools of regional, structural, sectorial, climate policies in the process of structural reconstruction of the economy of coal-extracting regions, and to engage the end-to-end mechanism of just transition without taking into account the attribution to any functional type of territories. The requirements are outlined for the economic structure of coal-extracting territories, relaunched due to the obligations to decarbonize the economic activity. The prospective is demonstrated to realize the economic potential of coal-extracting communities in the context of economic growth points’ creation based on cross-sectoral non-fuel usage of coal at the innovative basis. The opportunity is grounded to attribute the coal-extracting communities as the territories with special conditions for development due to the limitations of their development potential engagement caused by the obligations to cancel coal usage as the fuel. The need is proved to adapt the mechanism of just transition to be employed at the territories of recovery taken into account the level of infrastructure destruction. The recommendations are elaborated to expand the opportunities to create the growth points of the economy of coal-extracting communities in the conditions of limited engagement of their endogenous economic potential, in particular: avoiding the application of typical approaches to structural changes’ vectors at coal-extracting territories, and enhancing the role of industry in their economic structure; synchronization of just transition with the formulation of key features of the post-war model of economic development of Ukraine; creation of Just Transition Fund based on the European experience of just transition activity financing; updating the legislative basis of regulation of the problems of coal-extracting regions’ just transition.