Between 2019 and 2022, a research team from the TRAWOS Institute (Raj Kollmorgen, Markus Will, Annekathrin Kluttig), in a consortium led by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy and in cooperation with the ifo Institute for Economic Research (Dresden site), helped to realize a project funded by the Federal Environment Agency, which dealt with the past, present and future opportunities for sustainable regional development in the municipalities of lignite mining and power generation (in Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt).

The study, which has now been published and summarizes the results of the project, not only bundles analyses and existing legal and political conditions and actor constellations, but also formulates concrete recommendations for sustainable structural change in lignite regions. The study shows that it is crucial for successful structural change to integrate the sustainability agenda into the design of funding programs and development projects. It also requires the active participation of local stakeholders and the inclusion of the ideas and interests of local people.