Green against Green: Conflicts in Europe’s Energy Transition

In recent years, Europe has rapidly expanded its green industrial development. Clean energy production has grown quickly, along with other decarbonisation-related sectors such as battery manufacturing and hydrogen infrastructure, spurred in large part by EU policies like the Net-Zero Industry Act. At the same time, a wide range of environmental groups—including climate activists, local rural organisations, and conservation NGOs—have organised protests against many of these projects.

Although these groups often share similar environmental goals, their objections vary: some focus on biodiversity loss, others on the use of natural resources, procedural justice, or the artificialisation of lands. Recent examples include protests in Spain against battery factories (Montojo, 2025), protests in France against microchip industries (Soulèvements de la Terre, 2025), as well as widespread opposition to wind power projects in Spain (Lombardi, 2025), France (Jenkinson, 2023), and Great Britain (Farand, 2024).

These disputes are often described in academic literature as “green-green dilemmas”—conflicts between competing environmental rationalities. One operates at a global or systemic scale, emphasising large-scale solutions; the other is local or regional, prioritising place-based values and smaller-scale practices. The clash is also cultural: between activist approaches rooted in “small is beautiful” ideals and more institutionalised strategies driven by industrial policy. While such tensions are not new—they have been documented for decades (Cerchione et al., 2025; Dulluri & Raț,2019; Straka et al., 2020)—their growing scale and frequency suggest that these conflicting visions of environmental action are becoming more pronounced.

These dynamics, and their broader implications, merit closer examination. How can broad coalitions be built to support effective green policy? How can green industrial strategies be developed at both macro and micro levels? And what does all this mean for fair, inclusive decision-making?

Join us for this research seminar on 20 November (1-2pm), for a presentation of the topic followed by a discussion. Coffee and refreshments will be provided. No registration required.

Pablo Lapuente Tiana is a political scientist based at SCORE (Stockholm Centre for Organisational Research), Stockholm University, and an independent researcher. He specialises in environmental politics, focusing on conflicts and the dynamics between state and non-state actors in the European context.

Notes

Cerchione, R., Morelli, M., Passaro, R., & Quinto, I. (2025). Balancing sustainability and circular justice: The challenge of the energy transition. Journal of Cleaner Production, 494,  doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.144942 .

Dulluri, A., & Raț, D. (2019). The green-green dilemma: Reconciling the conflict between renewable energy and biodiversity. The Journal of Health, Environment, & Education, 6-14.

Farand, C. (2024, June 7). ‘It’s just too big’: Division over plans for UK’s biggest solar farm . The Guardian. 

Jenkinson, O. (2023). Court orders dismantling of French wind farm over bird deaths.

Lombardi, P. (2025, January 14). How a storm of lawsuits paralysed wind mills in northwest Spain . Reuters. 

Montojo, M. (2025, May 5). Dentro del estreno en España del movimiento Revoltes de la Terra: Acampada y protesta contra las baterías . ElDiario.es. 

Soulèvements de la Terre. (2025). Des terres, de l’eau, pas des puces—Appel à une mobilisation à Grenoble-Bernin le dimanche 30 mars . 

Straka, T. M., Fritze, M., & Voigt, C. C. (2020). The human dimensions of a green–green-dilemma:​ Lessons learned from the wind energy—Wildlife conflict in Germany . Energy Reports, 6, 1768–1777.