The Office for University and Trade Union Co-operation at the University of Oldenburg is today presenting a well-founded analysis of the energy industry in the northern part of the Weser-Ems region. The study by Prof. Dr Ulrich Scheele, in collaboration with Dr Uwe Kröcher, sheds light on the status quo of the industry in the region and its prospects in the transformation. A special focus was placed on the employment effects of the energy transition. The work is thus one of the few publications that is dedicated to this issue with a concrete view of a region and summarises the essential state of research. Partners of the study are the Lower Saxony Alliance for Sustainability, the DGB region Oldenburg-Ostfriesland, the Office for University and Trade Union Co-operation at the University of Oldenburg and Arbeit und Leben Niedersachsen.

The study, which was completed at the end of January 2023, involved a comprehensive evaluation of literature. As part of the project, several interviews were conducted with employee representatives from the companies primarily affected by the transformation. The study also incorporated findings from the working group meetings from the EDR project "Social Trans Energy" and various discussions with other stakeholders as well as events organised by the Oldenburg Energy Cluster on the transformation of the energy industry in the northwest. Partners of the study are the Office for University and Trade Union Co-operation at the University of Oldenburg, the Lower Saxony Alliance for Sustainability - whose sub-office is based at Arbeit und Leben Niedersachsen -, the DGB region Oldenburg-Ostfriesland and Arbeit und Leben Niedersachsen.

Download: Study on the socio-ecological transformation of the energy industry in the north-west region

Key findings of the study:

• The regions are the central spatial reference levels in which the success of transformation will also become apparent. Lower Saxony's north-west has great potential to develop into the energy region of the future as a traditional energy hub.
• The energy transition towards renewable energies will have different effects on the labour market, with employment growth being slightly positive overall.
• However, the adjustment processes will not be frictionless, meaning that there will be winners and losers - both at sector and regional level. Employee groups and therefore also qualification levels will be affected differently.
• Just transition concepts (just change) are important in order to give employees security during change. Among other things, it is crucial that the good labour, collective bargaining and co-determination conditions in the conventional energy industry are also transferred to employment opportunities in the renewable energy sector.
• The transformation process needs to be flanked by regional and structural policy. The state must promote the prerequisites for the market ramp-up of new technologies by investing in central infrastructures and creating a regulatory framework, also in order to create more planning security for private investments (e.g. development of a hydrogen network, expansion of the electricity grid, additional renewable energy plants, changes to the electricity price market).
• It is obvious that security of supply cannot be guaranteed by the markets and market forces alone.