251251 K. Wennberg, C. Sandström (eds.), Questioning the Entrepreneurial State, International Studies in Entrepreneurship 53, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94273-1_14 C. Sandström and C. Alm

252Introduction

A shift has taken place within environmental policies over the past decade. Environmental policy used to be primarily concerned with imposing various controls upon the emission of harmful substances. Inspired by economist Mariana Mazzucato (2015), many governments, as well as the European Union, have taken industrial policies on a new, considerably more interventionist path, sometimes referred to as innovation policy 3.0. For example, the EU Green Deal aims to mobilize €1000 billion over the coming decade in order to accomplish a transition to sustainability. A large portion of these resources will be allocated to specific technologies such as hydrogen gas. This shift toward interventionist policies stands in stark contrast to conventional wisdom concerning the state’s inability to “pick winners” (e.g., Lerner,