Setting ourselves stringent net zero targets will help us get ahead of other countries in the race to develop green technologies of the future. We know this must be true because Ed Miliband, and many others, keep telling us so. It is just that things don’t seem to be working out quite this way in the real world.
The collapse this week of the Swedish electric vehicle (EV) battery-maker Northvolt has once again shown how the countries most committed to net zero seem to be the ones which keep missing out on the spoils – while their industries drain away abroad, quite often to China.
Was there any company which symbolised Europe’s green industrial future more than Northvolt? Founded in 2015 with the help of a €350 million loan from the European Investment bank, it promised to provide for Europe’s rapidly growing EV industry.
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