“I fear for the future,” he said. “I have two young daughters to raise.” Just a year ago, Greece was confident it could shut down all existing coal-burning plants by 2023. It planned to build one last coal plant this year in the wider area where Mitsaris lives, Western Macedonia, which produces more than half of the country’s electricity. The new plant, Ptolemaida 5, would run in 2025 on natural gas, another polluting fossil fuel, but generally less carbon intensive than lignite or brown coal, found in this part of Greece.
That whole timeline is now up in smoke. The deadline for ending the use of coal at all existing plants has been pushed back from 2023 to 2025, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently suggested that the new Ptolemaida plant would realistically need to burn coal until at least 2028. And Greece plans to increase coal mining output by 50% over the next two years to offset gas shortages as Vladimir Putin tightens the taps flowing to the EU. Already the changes are glaring. In June 2021, coal produced 253.9 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity. This June, coal was responsible for 468.1 GWh, almost double. And it comes as the country battles wildfires on its mainland and islands, fueled by a scorching heat wave supercharged by climate change — which comes mostly from human burning of fossil fuels such as coal. Fires have left homes in ashes, people have been rescued from beaches and business owners on islands like Lesvos are facing a financially painful holiday season. Important life choices like where to live and work are hard to make when government plans are constantly changing. For Mitsaris, leaving his village where he was born and raised is not an option at this time.
“My wife used to work in a dairy factory, which also closed down a few years ago. She was offered a job in Athens, but then my salary was enough to support the whole family, so we decided to stay,” he said. “If I knew we would end up in the situation we are now, then I would have gone to Athens.” The Greek government is trying to convince the world that its return to coal is only temporary. But the resurgence of coal is luring people in Western Macedonia back into the industry. The energy company PPC has offered stable employment to thousands of people in Western Macedonia, where almost 1 in 5 are unemployed. Here — where everyone refers to coal as a “blessing and a curse” — going back to fossil fuels can make the difference between staying in and going out.
Already, so many have left for bigger cities, or even moved abroad, to find new lives.

A village in decline

In terms of transitioning from coal, Greece has been a success story. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Greece relied on coal for only about 9% of its energy supply, down from 25% just six years ago. It was the first country in the coal-dependent Balkans to announce a short-term goal to end the use of fossil fuels. But the transition has always had its challenges — mainly, what opportunities can the country offer former workers in coal towns?
In Western Macedonia — which supplies 80% of Greece’s coal — PPC has expropriated dozens of villages so it can mine the coal from under them, moving entire communities to the outskirts. And they were the lucky ones. During this awkward in-between phase — when coal is still mined but its years are numbered — the villagers of Akrini are unable to move, even as everything around them crumbles. Residents here have been in dispute with PPC for more than a decade, saying they are entitled to compensation to help them relocate from the village, which has for years been exposed to high levels of ash from the coal operations that surround them. They successfully lobbied for the right to relocate, which is now enshrined in a 2011 law. PPC told CNN in an email that it is not responsible for the villagers and did not respond to follow-up questions when presented with the law stating they are eligible for relocation assistance through 2021. Charalambos Mouratidis, 26, doesn’t really know what to do next.
Like Mitsaris, he has sought to make a new life after leaving his job at PPC in a coal mine, where his father also worked. But Mouratidis never had the same job security as his dad. He worked shifts for eight months on a short-term contract cleaning ash from machinery inside the mine. The instability, low pay and the heavy effects of toxic ash on his health pushed him out of the industry. He now runs a cattle farm, perched on a hill overlooking Akrini, as plumes of smoke and steam rise in the background from the chimneys and cooling towers of the coal plants around him. In addition to raising his cattle, he works a second job at a solar panel company, usually 13 hours a day between them to make ends meet.
Working at the solar panel company is a green job that provides Mouratidis with some extra income. But solar expansion is also taking up more and more land, leaving less for farming or grazing, so getting permission to expand farmland in Akrini is nearly impossible, he said.
Apart from the solar farms, all other infrastructure projects in Akrini have been cancelled. The village is allowed to die slowly. “I started farming, hoping to have a more stable future, and now even that effort is in jeopardy,” Mouratidis said. “Everyone has reached an impasse in this village.”

What’s next

The Greek government has devised a 7.5 billion euro ($7.9 billion) plan to help the country transform from a fossil fuel-based economy to a green innovation country. The Just Transition Development Plan, as it is known across the European Union, has received €1.63 billion in EU funding.
Western Macedonia is at the center of the plan and should receive a lot of money, in part to become a renewable energy center in the country. And while the plan is welcomed by many people here, many doubt it can all be achieved in the six years before the last coal plant goes offline.
Mouratidis is skeptical that the money will help him at all. “I’m not sure a lot of it will go to people like me, who run small businesses. Some money will go to those who openly support the current government, and most of it will stay with those who manage those funds.” he said. “That’s what history has shown us. Even during Covid-19, the support given to big companies and businesses was far greater than the support we got.”
But all hope is not lost. As many workers turn from coal to agriculture, some support from the EU is flowing. Just a few kilometers from Akrini, Nikos Koltsidas and Stathis Paschalidis are trying to create sustainable solutions for those who lost their jobs in the green transition and are willing to engage in goat and sheep farming.
Through their “Proud Farm” initiative, they act as incubators for Greeks who want to farm sustainably, offering them access to training and knowledge around the latest technologies at their disposal. “We want to create a network of self-sustainable farms, with respect for the environment and the animals, that will require very low capital from young farmers,” said Paschalidis, his sheep bleating in the background. Koltsidas said he wanted to spread the word to the local population that agriculture is not what it used to be and can provide a stable future. “It doesn’t require the effort it did in the past, where the farmer had to be on the farm all day, grazing the animals or milking them by hand,” he said.
“Those who are thinking of going back to coal work should look at all the areas that are thriving without it,” he said. “We don’t need to be stuck with these outdated PPC models.”