In Sweden, the gap between “green” announcement policies and their implementation is revealed.
The PR coup was a success: the media across Europe reported breathlessly on Thursday that the Swedish mining group LKAB had discovered enormous deposits of those rare earths at its arctic location in Kiruna, which are irreplaceable for the construction of electric motors and wind turbines. More than a million tons of such oxides were waiting to be mined and used for the “green transition”, LKAB announced in a press release.
The news was golden for the European Commission, which arrived in the mining town at the same time to celebrate the start of Sweden’s EU Council Presidency. The EU’s “green deal” is intended to help ensure that the Union no longer contributes net to the greenhouse effect in 2050 through comprehensive legal reforms and the leverage of hundreds of billions of euros. From 2035, only e-cars will be allowed to be newly registered, and all transport, heating and industrial processes must be gradually decarbonized.