How do you translate an elusive and bureaucratic concept like “just transition” into tangible experiences that resonate with everyone, especially those left on the margins of political processes?In Urlați, just transition translated into expanding cycling infrastructure—a project by young people, for young people. In Ploiești, it meant insulating several homes struggling with severe energy poverty. Small steps, but hopefully useful ones, through which politically marginalized communities can begin to question their place in the transition toward sustainability.
In our last update, we shared stories about two communities, where two groups have initiated community projects to bring the idea of just transition closer to home One group consists of high school students from Urlați, who have gathered around Conacul Nucu, a project that restored and revitalized a heritage building, turning it into a hub for civic action. The other group is made up of Roma women, mostly mothers, who bring their children to the Concordia day center in Ploiești; they live in Mimiu, a marginalized and partially informal neighborhood of Ploiești, that expanded in the shadow of the former Astra refinery as the rest of the city became increasingly inaccessible. Both are in Prahova, one of the country’s just transition regions, which you can read more about HERE.
But how do you start a conversation about a concept that has been encountered almost exclusively in European Commission documents and “Applicant Guidelines” sitting on the desks of county authorities, in a way that makes sense at the local level? Our opinion: through practice—breaking it down, assessing community capacities, and prioritizing what a civic group can feasibly accomplish on its own, within a year, with a limited budget.
URLAȚI ON BIKES
At the end of the summer of 2024, in a WhatsApp group of 12 young people from Urlați, they were voting on bike rack colors, comparing repair tool models, and delegating roles. They wanted to make cycling easier on the routes they used most often: to school and the town center. After drawing inspiration from online models, an order for two bike racks was placed with Mr. Geo, a former locksmith and current beekeeper. The local government and Brâncoveanu Vodă High School approved the placement of the racks in public spaces under their administration, as chosen by the youth. A repair station was built by the team at “Hai cu Bicla” and placed inside a car service shop across from the high school, where the employees were open to giving students advice when they needed to fix their bikes.
The group learned how to collaborate using a shared online drive and saw, for the first time, a project budget—where they each linked to tire patches and bike lights. To create a lasting behavioral shift and encourage more young people to cycle, they acknowledged that a technical solution alone was not enough; they also needed to build a support community. They planned to raise awareness in school and take turns volunteering one hour per week at the repair station.
They launched the Urlați on Bikes project with a cyclist march on November 3, 2024, during which 30 participants visited all the cycling points in town. The event ended with a traffic safety quiz and a raffle, where 10 cycling kits were distributed. Three months later, everything remains in place, and occasional photos of the bike racks in use are still being shared in the WhatsApp group.
MIMIU MATERIALS BANK
As a marginalized and unregulated urban area, Mimiu also faces ecological injustice. Residents are more exposed to environmental risks and the effects of climate change—they live in homes that do not sufficiently protect them from extreme temperatures, in highly polluted areas. Many issues in the community, such as soil decontamination, expanding water and sewage networks, or implementing a functional waste separation system, require long-term, consistent involvement from local authorities.
From their list of priorities, one major issue remained where they could intervene as a community group: making homes more energy-efficient.
Most houses in Mimiu are self-built, with gradual improvements made over time, often using unconventional materials. As a result, many have roof and ventilation issues, suffer from water infiltration, and lose heat. Given the limited budget, the working group created an evaluation framework and prioritized seven households in acute disrepair. These were assessed by a structural engineer, an architect, and a construction expert. The technical assessment refined the priority interventions to ensure that repairs were both safe and sustainable.
A budget and intervention plan were developed, including material costs, available labor within each household, and specialized construction services. For two homes, the roofs and ceilings were completely rebuilt and insulated. A third household prioritized roof repairs, but experts advised reinforcing a fragile structural beam that posed a risk to the entire building. Four other households received direct material donations for energy efficiency improvements and carried out the work themselves. Each family had a consultation with experts on what they should prioritize for future home improvements—such as the water circulation system to prevent material erosion, airtight doors, and functional windows.
LESSONS LEARNED
A participatory process is feeble when communities are not used to making decisions for themselves and are kept away from the political decision-making process at the local and regional levels. The projects have now concluded, but the process of community organizing had faced many obstacles: conflicts, delays, and, most of all, a lack of capacity within the community itself.
In Urlați, for example, because it was the youths’ first time implementing a project independently, they lacked confidence in taking initiative or asking for advice for fear of making mistakes. In Mimiu, individual needs were so great that participants struggled to agree on a project that would serve the entire community. While the final impact of the project on individual households was appreciated, it also opened Pandora’s box: people were left with a long list of unresolved problems and no concrete hope for future improvements.
In theory, both community projects align with the values and goals of the Just Transition Mechanism, yet the two groups remain far from seeing their problems and solutions through the lens of public policies or imagining a future where they can demand or collectively engage in connecting public and community resources.
Engagement, participation, and civic-public dialogue are like a muscle that must be trained continuously for it to work. Developing civic initiative groups, educating about environmental and climate change issues, and creating physical spaces for dialogue between local communities and authorities to co-develop a vision for the future of their region seem to be just some of the investment priorities that could lead to a truly just transition.
