Abstract
The transition to a green economy is particularly difficult for regions whose economies rely heavily on polluting resources, especially coal, oil, or heavy industry. A shift in these sectors can lead to local economic collapse. By anticipating these problems, the European Union proposed the Just Transition Mechanism that aims to mitigate the negative effects of a green transition on employment by financing the diversification and modernization of local economies and by encouraging employees to work in new sectors and industries. In Romania, six counties benefit from this fund, including “Prahova”, a heavily industrialized area with a long tradition of fossil fuel use, which continues to generate significant revenues for local budgets. In this context, the main objective of the paper is to empirically assess the degree of economic vulnerability of the county to the transition to climate neutrality, by determining regional dependence and specialization in high-carbon sectors, using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) and Location Quotient (LQ) indicators. The topic is a timely one, with numerous studies focused on the application of the framework for a just transition in coal regions. However, what is missing is a quantitative assessment of the risks and challenges faced by regions with a developed oil and gas sector, such as Prahova. The results show that the region is still heavily industrialized with high-carbon enterprises, Nevertheless, important steps have been made towards the green transition, and the authorities recognize carbon exposure as a real problem and continue to focus on solutions to limit it.