• Energy Research

Despite the extent and importance of the Smart Specialization strategies, achieved in a short cohesion policy period from 2014 to 2020, the evidence on the assessment of their actual effect on the economic development and the mobilization via the Smart Specialization implementation of the regions is still pending. In light of green transformation, accelerated by the European Green Deal, the heart of Smart Specialization strategies of EU regions is to avoid fragmentation and to reach a complementary in reaching the joint EU ambition of climate neutrality by 2050. This article aims to demonstrate how to identify the region-specific (place-based and bottom–up) pathways for green transformation and align them with the European Green Deal-focused Smart Specialization strategies in regions, using moderated co-creation in DPSIR analysis and policy modeling. The findings of this article are based on the moderated experimental experience from the two interconnected projects in the area, i.e., “LARS” and “GRETA”, implemented in the Baltic Sea Region (October 2017 to September 2021). The research proposes how moderated learning and knowledge transfer between matured innovators and young innovators embodies the identification of place-based pathways and help develop political course recommendations for green transformation, thus solving the homogeneity issues of the Smart Specialization strategies.

Green transformation at the beginning of the 21st century occupies the top positions in modern society’s sustainability transition research and policy debates due to its multiple propositions of various innovations, addressing the still unsolved issues of rapidly on-going societal and technological changes. Rooting from the general climate change concerns, recently, sustainability transformation has become a special focus in the EU, which is facing new and very concrete demands—to elucidate the evidence-based pathways towards the green transformation with European Green Deal and European Climate Law targets ahead. The main aim of this research is to disclose the pathway towards the green transformation in Lithuania in one of the fast-growing research fields of circular bioeconomy—biogas production from manure and waste. To reach this aim, a hybrid methodology approach was used. Analysis and synthesis of scientific literature, document analysis and structuring, stakeholder mapping, interviews, and statistical analysis methods had been applied. Research results gave evidence for one of the five proposed possible ways for green transformation in Lithuania—the regime transformation. Interviewed stakeholders repeatedly defined this as the most probable pathway for green transformation in Lithuania in the field of biogas production from manure and waste, considering the best suitability of the current development state in the field: adjustments of existing industries, skills, regulations, and institutions.