European climate policies are increasingly under scrutiny as growing economic failures and bankruptcies cast doubt on the EU’s green industrial strategy. Speaking at a panel discussion on climate policy, competitiveness, and cost of living, Swedish Associate Professor Christian Sandström issued a stark warning about what he described as “green bubbles” created by Brussels-backed funding.
”We’ve had many spectacular failures in Sweden over the past few years,” Sandström said. ”But I mean the crashing electricity system in Spain, the German Energiewende, hydrogen gas projects being cancelled in Germany and elsewhere. So definitely this is a European dilemma because it originates from Brussels.”
Sandström criticized large-scale EU-funded projects — including the EU Innovation Fund, pandemic recovery funds, and loans from the European Investment Bank — for inflating what he calls unsustainable “green bubbles.” He pointed to the high-profile bankruptcy of battery startup Northvolt as a key example: “Northvolt in Sweden […] is the largest bankruptcy Sweden has experienced since the 1930s. So it’s definitely fueled by the European Union and its policies.”
The ideological drive behind these policies, Sandström argues, is deeply flawed. “It is largely driven by an ideology where we’re supposed to go ahead and create green jobs, new export industry and a sustainable future,” he said. “But […] if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.”
Sandström also presented a critique of the concept of the “entrepreneurial state,” popularized by Professor Mariana Mazzucato and embraced by EU policymakers. “These ideas don’t work. These were at best anecdotes with lots of factual errors […] sold to policymakers who could all of a sudden be in the driver’s seat of the economy.”
He linked the EU’s Green Deal — famously called a “man on the moon moment” by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — to the current economic troubles across the continent. “It seems to be more of a crash landing if you look at the reality now.”
Asked whether there is a shift in public sentiment, Sandström was cautiously optimistic. “We have one powerful ally and it’s only one — and that is reality. Reality is catching up now with the bankruptcies and the crashes and the rising electricity prices.”
Whether that reality will reshape policy remains uncertain, but for Sandström and his colleagues, the writing is on the wall.