In West Macedonia (Greece), CO₂ accounts as one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions related to the activity of the regional coal power plants located in Ptolemaida. The necessity to mitigate CO₂ emissions to prevent climate change under the Paris Agreement’s framework remains an ongoing and demanding challenge. It requires implementing crucial environmentally sustainable technologies to provide balanced solutions between the short-term needs for dependency on fossil fuels and the requirements to move towards the energy transition era. The challenge to utilise and store CO₂ emissions will require actions aiming to contribute to a Europe-wide CCUS infrastructure. The Horizon 2020 European Project “STRATEGY CCUS “examines the potential for CO₂ storage in the Mesohellenic Trough from past available data deploying the USDOE methodology. Research results show that CO₂ storage capacities for the Pentalofos and Eptachori geological formations of the Mesohellenic Trough are estimated at 1.02 and 0.13 Gt, respectively, thus providing the potential for the implementation of a promising method for reducing CO₂ emissions in Greece. A certain storage potential also applies to the Grevena sub-basin, offering the opportunity to store any captured CO₂ in the area, including other remote regions.

Heritage and culture tourism involve features that commemorate a valued past. Mining heritage tourism allows visitors to experience the past, guided by former mining landscapes and engaging interactively with material artifacts. This paper introduces the CoalHeritage European project, focusing on the promotion of coal mining heritage through the production and design of the European Visual Map Journal (EVMJ). The EVMJ is a user-friendly, web-based, interactive storytelling platform that supports the transfer of industrial and geoheritage from former coal mining areas. It aims to collect and disseminate heritage assets from post-mining coal areas, informing stakeholders and promoting these sites as tourist destinations. To further enhance public awareness, several ESRI StoryMaps web apps are being created to highlight specific features of each case study across Europe. The aim of this work is to introduce coal mining heritage as a new term, present the coal heritage platform and its importance for disseminating coal heritage aspects to the public, describe the methodology used for its design, and provide a brief overview of its evolving content.

Media coverage plays a pivotal role in shaping public perception of the energy transition. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of how the lignite phase-out is represented in Greece, both by national and regional media, with a specific focus on the impacted region of Western Macedonia. Using data from the Leipzig Corpora Collection and regional news portals from 2013 to 2022, the analysis reveals significant divergences between media levels. While both show synchronized peaks for key terms like “Climate change” (2019) and “Western Macedonia” (2021), regional media addressed the direct impacts of the transition earlier and more intensely, with terms like “post-lignite” and “de-lignification” peaking in 2020 following the announcement of the Master Plan. National media framed the transition within a broader, top-down policy context, often with an optimistic tone, reflecting EU directives. In contrast, regional media provided a community-centric perspective, highlighting concerns over job losses and the preservation of local identity. The findings underscore a clear tension between official narratives of progress and local-level concerns, demonstrating that media discourse is a critical, multi-faceted component of just transition processes that policymakers must consider.

Coal-dependent regions face a multidimensional transition challenge that extends beyond energy substitution and requires coordinated transformation of industrial systems, landscapes, infrastructure, governance and local economies. Using a structured narrative review and framework-building approach, this paper develops a systems-based framework for sustainable post-lignite transition, using Western Macedonia as the main integrated case and Megalopolis as a comparative Greek lignite region. The proposed approach integrates four interrelated domains: subsurface and geological potential, industrial decarbonisation pathways, post-mining land and infrastructure reuse, and socio-economic and governance transition. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), low-carbon industrial technologies, renewable energy integration, energy-storage options, land rehabilitation, heritage valorisation and place-based development strategies. The analysis highlights that successful post-coal transition depends not only on the availability of individual technological solutions, but also on their spatial, environmental, economic and governance compatibility within the regional system. By aligning geological knowledge, engineering innovation, environmental management and just-transition planning, the paper proposes an integrated planning framework intended to structure the consideration of multiple forms of evidence in former lignite regions. The framework is broadly consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to clean energy, resilient infrastructure, sustainable communities, responsible land reuse, climate action and ecosystem restoration, and offers transferable insights for European coal regions seeking resilient, diversified and low-carbon development pathways.