Again turmoil among farmers: Monday morning reported NRC that the Ministry of Finance has calculated that less nitrogen reduction is needed if the Netherlands adheres to the climate agreements. Because if more Dutch people start driving electrically, coal-fired power stations are closed and factories reduce CO2 emissions, this automatically leads to significantly less nitrogen emissions.
That future nitrogen saving would not have been included in the infamous map of the Ministry of Agriculture – from last June – which shows how much nitrogen must be reduced per region in the Netherlands. Since nitrogen minister Christianne van der Wal presented her plans and that card, there have been continuous farmers’ protests.
Minister Kaag (Finance) confirms that her officials have made this new calculation. “Since the coalition agreement, people have continued to refine and validate the possible calculation at official level,” she told De Telegraaf from Brussels. “But it’s not finished. It is not complete and it is not politically isolated.”
‘Official calculation exercise’
Kaag states that it concerns an ‘official calculation exercise’. “Finance does that systematically. If there are ideas, how does that work out? But this is very unfinished. It also depends on how the climate goals are tackled. It looks much bigger than it is.” Kaag did not know about the calculation until Monday, she says. The Ministry of Agriculture was also not aware, says a spokesperson there.
Kaag understands that the leaked calculation leads to more unrest among farmers. Caroline van der Plas (BBB) and Pieter Omtzigt have already asked parliamentary questions about the issue in the House of Representatives. Kaag: “I understand the emotion very well, because people don’t know what the status of such a piece is.”
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The Ministry of Agriculture reports that the agricultural sector must also contribute to achieving the climate goals by 2030. This is not to say that the nitrogen measures can now be suddenly weakened. The government wants to halve nitrogen emissions by 2030. Current plans require the livestock to shrink by about 30 percent.