Environmental Policies
#22Key Findings
With legal battles driving significant aspects of policy, the Netherlands falls into the middle ranks internationally (rank 22) with regard to environmental policies. Its score on this measure has improved by 0.2 points since 2014.
Court verdicts have forced the government into new action on air quality and agricultural pollution. The new coalition has increased emissions-reduction ambitions. It is seeking binding pollution-reduction agreements with the country’s top 20 industrial polluters, and is looking to nuclear energy as a sustainable source of power.
Overall, air and surface-water quality is poor, in large part due to intensive farming and traffic congestion. Plastics are seen as a problem, but are dealt with at the municipal level. The renewable energy share is small, consisting mostly of biomass.
Courts have increasingly set precedents targeting individual polluting businesses. Royal Dutch Shell left the country after being ordered to reduce its CO2 emissions. The country provides bilateral support for sustainability policies. However, trade activities and tax policies produce considerable negative environmental impact on other EU member states.
Court verdicts have forced the government into new action on air quality and agricultural pollution. The new coalition has increased emissions-reduction ambitions. It is seeking binding pollution-reduction agreements with the country’s top 20 industrial polluters, and is looking to nuclear energy as a sustainable source of power.
Overall, air and surface-water quality is poor, in large part due to intensive farming and traffic congestion. Plastics are seen as a problem, but are dealt with at the municipal level. The renewable energy share is small, consisting mostly of biomass.
Courts have increasingly set precedents targeting individual polluting businesses. Royal Dutch Shell left the country after being ordered to reduce its CO2 emissions. The country provides bilateral support for sustainability policies. However, trade activities and tax policies produce considerable negative environmental impact on other EU member states.
Graph View
Graph View
How effectively does environmental policy in your country protect and preserve the sustainability of natural resources and environmental quality?
10
9
9
Environmental policy goals are ambitious and effectively implemented as well as monitored within and across most relevant policy sectors that account for the largest share of resource use and emissions.
8
7
6
7
6
Environmental policy goals are mainly ambitious and effectively implemented and are monitored within and across some of the relevant policy sectors that account for the largest share of resource use and emissions.
5
4
3
4
3
Environmental policy goals are neither particularly ambitious nor are they effectively implemented and coordinated across relevant policy sectors.
2
1
1
Environmental concerns have been largely abandoned.
A few key facts about the Dutch economy help to understand why the Netherlands is struggling with environmental issues. The Netherlands is an agricultural superpower within an urbanized society. In terms of value, the Netherlands is the second-largest agricultural exporter in the world. Most exports are in livestock; its feed needs to be imported, what remains in the country is manure, which, processed into fertilizer, leaves a huge nitrogen emission impact. Household electricity and gas use constitute 12% of total energy use in the Netherlands. Traffic and transport have a slightly larger share of 15%. The largest share of about 40% is from industry. The structure of the Dutch economy is energy-intensive. The share of renewable energy is small; the largest contribution is made by biomass, but the Netherlands is unable to meet its energy demand using only domestically grown biomass, as there simply is not enough land available. The Dutch have never been more mobile. Add to this that the Netherlands is a country of transport flows. Every day, goods are shipped from Dutch harbors to the European hinterland by air, ship, railroad and road transportation services that have a total annual (2021) value of €54 billion. In other words, environmental policy has immediate and severe impacts on the country’s economic business model.
The Rutte III government has described itself “the greenest coalition” to date, and put climate change on its political agenda. A Climate Act was approved by parliament in December 2018. Broad consultations eventually produced a climate agreement that set the goal of a 49% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020. Before the Paris Accords, the Dutch government had resisted more ambitious international climate goals. At the moment, the goals are not being met, and the State Council called for immediate remedial measures instead of waiting for the new coalition government.
The new coalition agreement has more ambitious plans: a minimum of 55% CO2 reduction in the Climate Law, binding agreements regarding pollution reduction with the top 20 industrial polluters, and, remarkably, the revival of nuclear energy as a sustainable source. The new government even has a minister of climate and energy.
There has been a clear policy shift in recent years toward climate adaptation. This appears manageable today because any adverse developments in the Netherlands will be gradual. The Netherlands’ natural-gas reserves have diminished rapidly and will necessitate gas imports from 2025 onward, despite decreasing demand. Meanwhile, earthquakes and soil subsidence are damaging houses in the northern provinces where the Dutch gas reserves are located. The government has introduced compensation measures for victims (but these are still contested as too small, unfairly distributed and inefficiently allocated).
Plastic is seen as a problem, but is dealt with largely at the municipal level, as a part of local recycling programs. A deposit paid by consumers on plastic bottles was introduced in 2021.
The quality of air and surface water in the Netherlands remains poor, with intensive farming and traffic congestion the primary causes of concern, as well as soil salification in agricultural lands. Half of the country’s rivers, canals and lakes contain too much nitrogen and phosphates. Air pollution levels, especially of particulate matter in the region around Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, are among the highest in Europe, and the concentrations of ozone and nitrogen dioxide are linked to a very considerable amount of premature deaths.
Sustainable agriculture, particularly meat and dairy farming, is on the agenda and is gaining social support. In October 2018, the Urgenda environmental association won a major victory, with the Court of Appeal ruling that the government’s failure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions significantly violated its human rights obligations. The verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court. In a separate case, courts rejected a scheme for trading future emissions in nitrogen, deeming that it failed to protect the environment sufficiently, and failed to assure air quality. The verdict effectively brought a large number of construction projects, including housing construction, to a halt. The reaction was to turn a focus on a primary culprit in this area – Dutch industrial farming, particularly livestock farming, which is the largest contributor to the country’s nitrogen emissions. A call to reduce the sector by half led to mass demonstrations by farmers, and even riots in some locations. Construction workers also protested, as they too viewed their jobs as being at risk.
Eventually, even the suggestion that industrial farming should be reduced at least by half to resolve the nitrogen crisis (and the exacerbation of the housing problem due to the delay of construction projects) led to loud and intimidating protest by the newly established Farmers Defense Force (with tractors in the streets of the Hague and blocking highways), and to the election of a member of parliament from the new Farmers’ Citizen Movement. Evidently, both the farming and the construction sectors will have to act to meet the Urgenda goals by 2025, according to the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency.
All in all, the government that originally called itself “green” was forced by these verdicts to increase the pace of its climate action, in some cases through the use of emergency measures. A very visible measure has been the speed-limit reduction on highways to a maximum of 100 kilometers per hour during daylight hours. These measures have become possible due to a gradual shift in public opinion. The discussion is no longer if emissions reductions will happen, but about the distribution of costs. For example, many have expressed a fear that the weakest shoulders will carry a disproportionately high burden. Still, the new coalition is allocating €25 billion to compensate farmers and to stimulate sustainable farming, by this confirming the fears that ordinary citizens as taxpayers will continue to carry the burden of energy transition and climate adaptation.
At the same time, the Netherlands continues to invest heavily in fossil fuels. After heavy criticism, it signed the COP26 agreement in Glasgow to end investment in fossil fuel. Recently, the sustainability of biomass (an important element in the climate agreement) has been called into doubt. By denying an environmental permit to an energy producer using biomass, the Dutch court in 2021 set a precedent that could lead to shutting down businesses as well, rather than being limited to bringing construction projects to a halt. The permit was denied on the grounds that nitrogen emissions were too high. Although industry is responsible for 9% of the country’s nitrogen emissions, businesses could be a target of more court orders in the coming months and years, since many of them hold old permits, sometimes exceeding the current norms by three to four times.
The airline industry is still not paying its fair share with regard to the amelioration of pollution, although the government has pledged to resolve this issue at the European level. The coronavirus crisis did not stimulate any long term measures in this respect. Instead, KLM was saved by generous support with taxpayers’ money. The new coalition is allocating €22 billion to stimulate environmentally friendly practices at KLM, Tata Steel and other big industrial polluters.
In 2021, in a historic verdict, Royal Dutch Shell was ordered to reduce its CO2 emission by 45% compared to the total 2019 level. As a response, Shell moved its headquarters to the United Kingdom.
Although the Netherlands has been praised as a pioneer in the area of mapping and assessing ecosystems and their management, and in developing natural capital accounting systems, significant problems remain. The most serious problems involve habitat fragmentation and biodiversity loss, atmospheric nitrogen deposition, desiccation and acidification. Over the last 25 years, about 140 species inhabiting the North Sea have suffered a 30% decline, mainly due to recently forbidden commercial fishing techniques.
Citations:
Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving, 5 August, 2014. The Netherlands in 21 infographics.
The EU Environmental Implementation Review Country Report – The Netherlands, Brussel, April 2019
Algemene Rekenkamer, Focus op kosten windenergie op zee, 27-09-2018
Planbureau voor de leefomgeving, Klimaat – en Energieverkenning 2019
Urgenda wint hoger beroep klimaatzaak, http://news.smart.pr/urgenda/persbericht-urgenda-wint-hoger-beroep-klimaatzaak, October 2018
WRR-Policy Brief 5, Klimaatbeleid voor de lange termijn: van vrijblijvend naar verankerd, October 2016
Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving, Balans van de leefomgeving 2018, http://news.smart.pr/urgenda/persbericht-urgenda-wint-hoger-beroep-klimaatzaak
Raad voor de leefomgeving en infrastructuur, Duurzaam en gezond. Samen naar een houdbaar voedselsysteem. Maart 2018
Deltaprogramma 2020, Doorwerken aan de delta: nuchter, alert en voorbereid, https://www.deltacommissaris.nl/deltaprogramma, visited 2 november 2019
https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/aanpak-stikstof/uitspraak-raad-van-state-en-gevolgen-einde-pas, visited october 2019
https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/ministeries/ministerie-van-economische-zaken-en-klimaat/documenten/publicaties/2019/06/28/het-klimaatakkoord-in-meer-dan-70-vragen
The Rutte III government has described itself “the greenest coalition” to date, and put climate change on its political agenda. A Climate Act was approved by parliament in December 2018. Broad consultations eventually produced a climate agreement that set the goal of a 49% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020. Before the Paris Accords, the Dutch government had resisted more ambitious international climate goals. At the moment, the goals are not being met, and the State Council called for immediate remedial measures instead of waiting for the new coalition government.
The new coalition agreement has more ambitious plans: a minimum of 55% CO2 reduction in the Climate Law, binding agreements regarding pollution reduction with the top 20 industrial polluters, and, remarkably, the revival of nuclear energy as a sustainable source. The new government even has a minister of climate and energy.
There has been a clear policy shift in recent years toward climate adaptation. This appears manageable today because any adverse developments in the Netherlands will be gradual. The Netherlands’ natural-gas reserves have diminished rapidly and will necessitate gas imports from 2025 onward, despite decreasing demand. Meanwhile, earthquakes and soil subsidence are damaging houses in the northern provinces where the Dutch gas reserves are located. The government has introduced compensation measures for victims (but these are still contested as too small, unfairly distributed and inefficiently allocated).
Plastic is seen as a problem, but is dealt with largely at the municipal level, as a part of local recycling programs. A deposit paid by consumers on plastic bottles was introduced in 2021.
The quality of air and surface water in the Netherlands remains poor, with intensive farming and traffic congestion the primary causes of concern, as well as soil salification in agricultural lands. Half of the country’s rivers, canals and lakes contain too much nitrogen and phosphates. Air pollution levels, especially of particulate matter in the region around Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, are among the highest in Europe, and the concentrations of ozone and nitrogen dioxide are linked to a very considerable amount of premature deaths.
Sustainable agriculture, particularly meat and dairy farming, is on the agenda and is gaining social support. In October 2018, the Urgenda environmental association won a major victory, with the Court of Appeal ruling that the government’s failure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions significantly violated its human rights obligations. The verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court. In a separate case, courts rejected a scheme for trading future emissions in nitrogen, deeming that it failed to protect the environment sufficiently, and failed to assure air quality. The verdict effectively brought a large number of construction projects, including housing construction, to a halt. The reaction was to turn a focus on a primary culprit in this area – Dutch industrial farming, particularly livestock farming, which is the largest contributor to the country’s nitrogen emissions. A call to reduce the sector by half led to mass demonstrations by farmers, and even riots in some locations. Construction workers also protested, as they too viewed their jobs as being at risk.
Eventually, even the suggestion that industrial farming should be reduced at least by half to resolve the nitrogen crisis (and the exacerbation of the housing problem due to the delay of construction projects) led to loud and intimidating protest by the newly established Farmers Defense Force (with tractors in the streets of the Hague and blocking highways), and to the election of a member of parliament from the new Farmers’ Citizen Movement. Evidently, both the farming and the construction sectors will have to act to meet the Urgenda goals by 2025, according to the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency.
All in all, the government that originally called itself “green” was forced by these verdicts to increase the pace of its climate action, in some cases through the use of emergency measures. A very visible measure has been the speed-limit reduction on highways to a maximum of 100 kilometers per hour during daylight hours. These measures have become possible due to a gradual shift in public opinion. The discussion is no longer if emissions reductions will happen, but about the distribution of costs. For example, many have expressed a fear that the weakest shoulders will carry a disproportionately high burden. Still, the new coalition is allocating €25 billion to compensate farmers and to stimulate sustainable farming, by this confirming the fears that ordinary citizens as taxpayers will continue to carry the burden of energy transition and climate adaptation.
At the same time, the Netherlands continues to invest heavily in fossil fuels. After heavy criticism, it signed the COP26 agreement in Glasgow to end investment in fossil fuel. Recently, the sustainability of biomass (an important element in the climate agreement) has been called into doubt. By denying an environmental permit to an energy producer using biomass, the Dutch court in 2021 set a precedent that could lead to shutting down businesses as well, rather than being limited to bringing construction projects to a halt. The permit was denied on the grounds that nitrogen emissions were too high. Although industry is responsible for 9% of the country’s nitrogen emissions, businesses could be a target of more court orders in the coming months and years, since many of them hold old permits, sometimes exceeding the current norms by three to four times.
The airline industry is still not paying its fair share with regard to the amelioration of pollution, although the government has pledged to resolve this issue at the European level. The coronavirus crisis did not stimulate any long term measures in this respect. Instead, KLM was saved by generous support with taxpayers’ money. The new coalition is allocating €22 billion to stimulate environmentally friendly practices at KLM, Tata Steel and other big industrial polluters.
In 2021, in a historic verdict, Royal Dutch Shell was ordered to reduce its CO2 emission by 45% compared to the total 2019 level. As a response, Shell moved its headquarters to the United Kingdom.
Although the Netherlands has been praised as a pioneer in the area of mapping and assessing ecosystems and their management, and in developing natural capital accounting systems, significant problems remain. The most serious problems involve habitat fragmentation and biodiversity loss, atmospheric nitrogen deposition, desiccation and acidification. Over the last 25 years, about 140 species inhabiting the North Sea have suffered a 30% decline, mainly due to recently forbidden commercial fishing techniques.
Citations:
Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving, 5 August, 2014. The Netherlands in 21 infographics.
The EU Environmental Implementation Review Country Report – The Netherlands, Brussel, April 2019
Algemene Rekenkamer, Focus op kosten windenergie op zee, 27-09-2018
Planbureau voor de leefomgeving, Klimaat – en Energieverkenning 2019
Urgenda wint hoger beroep klimaatzaak, http://news.smart.pr/urgenda/persbericht-urgenda-wint-hoger-beroep-klimaatzaak, October 2018
WRR-Policy Brief 5, Klimaatbeleid voor de lange termijn: van vrijblijvend naar verankerd, October 2016
Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving, Balans van de leefomgeving 2018, http://news.smart.pr/urgenda/persbericht-urgenda-wint-hoger-beroep-klimaatzaak
Raad voor de leefomgeving en infrastructuur, Duurzaam en gezond. Samen naar een houdbaar voedselsysteem. Maart 2018
Deltaprogramma 2020, Doorwerken aan de delta: nuchter, alert en voorbereid, https://www.deltacommissaris.nl/deltaprogramma, visited 2 november 2019
https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/aanpak-stikstof/uitspraak-raad-van-state-en-gevolgen-einde-pas, visited october 2019
https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/ministeries/ministerie-van-economische-zaken-en-klimaat/documenten/publicaties/2019/06/28/het-klimaatakkoord-in-meer-dan-70-vragen
Graph View
To what extent does the government actively contribute to the design and advancement of global environmental protection regimes?
10
9
9
The government actively contributes to international efforts to design and advance global environmental protection regimes. In most cases, it demonstrates commitment to existing regimes, contributes to their being advanced and has introduced appropriate reforms.
8
7
6
7
6
The government contributes to international efforts to strengthen global environmental protection regimes. It demonstrates commitment to existing regimes and occasionally contributes to their being advanced and/or has introduced some appropriate reforms.
5
4
3
4
3
The government demonstrates commitment to existing regimes, but does not contribute to their being advanced and has not introduced appropriate reforms.
2
1
1
The government does not contribute to international efforts to strengthen global environmental protection regimes.
The Dutch government has traditionally been a strong supporter of EU leadership in the Kyoto process of global climate policy and advancing global environmental protection regimes. It has also signed related international treaties on safety, food security, energy and international justice. In Glasgow, the Netherlands signed the COP26 deal to end fossil fuel investments, following initially sharp criticism both within the country and abroad.
The government continues to aspire to a coherent sustainability policy or a “policy agenda for globalization.” It regards resource and energy scarcity, transborder disease control, climate change, transborder crime, and international trade agreements as the most pressing global issues. The amalgamation of trade and development work has gone further under Rutte III. The new coalition agreement has the ambition to green its trade instruments, shift toward more justice in trade practices and cut aid to fossil industries.
As an immediate response, climate change is addressed mainly as a mitigation effort, for example, through the Dutch Risk Reduction Team, offering assistance and expertise to water-related risk areas around the globe. A coherent globalization policy also means that research is conducted and monitoring is performed regarding any ways that one policy may undermine others. In spite of this intention, Dutch reassessment of development aid appears to favor bilateral over multilateral global sustainability policy. For example, the financing of Dutch initiatives in advancing global public goods is no longer separately budgeted but is instead part of the diminishing development-aid budget.
The Netherlands participates in efforts targeting global climate resilience that are focused on tapping technological innovation to reduce CO2. Bilateral projects with various countries outside the EU are centered on knowledge sharing, particularly in the area of water management. Water management is also a key element of the Dutch contribution to the Global Commission on Adaptation, of which the Netherlands is initiator, a convening country and a direct funder. Water management systems are also a key asset in Dutch trade.
However, the Dutch economy is currently one of the worst polluters in Europe, not at home but through its trade activities beyond the country’s borders and their impact on people and ecosystems. The Netherlands ranks last (31st) on the EU spillover list. The list compares the effect of national policies on the life and welfare of other member states. The main reason for this abysmal score is Dutch tax policy. The Netherlands occupies fourth place in the ranking of tax-havens in the world, with a total of 12,400 mailbox companies. This means that other countries lose approximately €20 billion in tax revenue on a yearly basis.
The Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment is an independent advisory body composed of experts. In 2017, it won an award for the quality of its services. It provides advisory services and capacity development to international governments, focusing on the quality of environmental assessments, with the aim of contributing to sound decision-making. However, on the domestic front, its data on nitrogen deposits in protected natural areas were called into question by major political parties when court cases on the issue forced the government to take urgent measures in the agricultural and construction sectors.
Citations:
Kabinetsreactie op het WRR-rapport: Minder pretentie, meer ambitie (2010) (www.eerstekamer.nl/id/vimdknvvxtfz/document-extern/briefmp110112)
Adapt now: a global call for leadership on climate resilience. Global Commission on Adaptation, September 2019
Additional reference:
http://www.aiv-advies.nl/ContentSuite/upload/aiv/file/webversie_AIV%2084_NL.pdf
Rijksbegroting 2016 Defensie (http://www.rijksbegroting.nl/2019/voorbereiding/begroting, consulted 6 November 2019)
https://www.rvo.nl/subsidies-regelingen/dutch-risk-reduction-team-drr-team
Netherlands Commission on Environmental Assessment, 2018 (era.nl, accessed 8 November 2018)
https://nltimes.nl/2021/11/08/netherlands-signs-cop26-deal-end-fossil-fuel-investments
The government continues to aspire to a coherent sustainability policy or a “policy agenda for globalization.” It regards resource and energy scarcity, transborder disease control, climate change, transborder crime, and international trade agreements as the most pressing global issues. The amalgamation of trade and development work has gone further under Rutte III. The new coalition agreement has the ambition to green its trade instruments, shift toward more justice in trade practices and cut aid to fossil industries.
As an immediate response, climate change is addressed mainly as a mitigation effort, for example, through the Dutch Risk Reduction Team, offering assistance and expertise to water-related risk areas around the globe. A coherent globalization policy also means that research is conducted and monitoring is performed regarding any ways that one policy may undermine others. In spite of this intention, Dutch reassessment of development aid appears to favor bilateral over multilateral global sustainability policy. For example, the financing of Dutch initiatives in advancing global public goods is no longer separately budgeted but is instead part of the diminishing development-aid budget.
The Netherlands participates in efforts targeting global climate resilience that are focused on tapping technological innovation to reduce CO2. Bilateral projects with various countries outside the EU are centered on knowledge sharing, particularly in the area of water management. Water management is also a key element of the Dutch contribution to the Global Commission on Adaptation, of which the Netherlands is initiator, a convening country and a direct funder. Water management systems are also a key asset in Dutch trade.
However, the Dutch economy is currently one of the worst polluters in Europe, not at home but through its trade activities beyond the country’s borders and their impact on people and ecosystems. The Netherlands ranks last (31st) on the EU spillover list. The list compares the effect of national policies on the life and welfare of other member states. The main reason for this abysmal score is Dutch tax policy. The Netherlands occupies fourth place in the ranking of tax-havens in the world, with a total of 12,400 mailbox companies. This means that other countries lose approximately €20 billion in tax revenue on a yearly basis.
The Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment is an independent advisory body composed of experts. In 2017, it won an award for the quality of its services. It provides advisory services and capacity development to international governments, focusing on the quality of environmental assessments, with the aim of contributing to sound decision-making. However, on the domestic front, its data on nitrogen deposits in protected natural areas were called into question by major political parties when court cases on the issue forced the government to take urgent measures in the agricultural and construction sectors.
Citations:
Kabinetsreactie op het WRR-rapport: Minder pretentie, meer ambitie (2010) (www.eerstekamer.nl/id/vimdknvvxtfz/document-extern/briefmp110112)
Adapt now: a global call for leadership on climate resilience. Global Commission on Adaptation, September 2019
Additional reference:
http://www.aiv-advies.nl/ContentSuite/upload/aiv/file/webversie_AIV%2084_NL.pdf
Rijksbegroting 2016 Defensie (http://www.rijksbegroting.nl/2019/voorbereiding/begroting, consulted 6 November 2019)
https://www.rvo.nl/subsidies-regelingen/dutch-risk-reduction-team-drr-team
Netherlands Commission on Environmental Assessment, 2018 (era.nl, accessed 8 November 2018)
https://nltimes.nl/2021/11/08/netherlands-signs-cop26-deal-end-fossil-fuel-investments