The reuse of nitrogen rights from closed or discontinued companies in some cases leads to the deterioration of nature. Although governments regularly use these rights to allow construction projects to proceed, it is probably not allowed under the Nature Conservation Act, experts say. NRC.
In May 2019, the Council of State ruled that too little had been done for years to reduce nitrogen precipitation in the Netherlands. Nature had suffered additional damage as a result. As a result, the granting of permits for thousands of construction projects by provinces, municipalities and the national government came to an abrupt halt.
In order to allow projects to go ahead, governments have started looking for ‘goat paths’: complex legal solutions to be able to build. For example, governments can buy a farm and close it, in order to free up nitrogen space for their own projects.
Since the nitrogen ruling from 2019, governments have been looking for legal solutions
In addition, in many provinces it is currently also permitted to use the nitrogen space of companies that have been out of operation for a long time. For example, the province of North Holland uses the nitrogen space of a factory that has been closed since the turn of the century. The rights will be used for the construction of a complex with luxury apartments. In Zeeland, the municipality of Schouwen-Duiveland uses the nitrogen space of a department store that burned down seven years ago.
Municipalities and provinces believe that this is allowed on the basis of existing legislation and jurisprudence, but according to experts this is not correct. Since the ruling of the Council of State, “there must be no net increase in nitrogen”, says Jan Willem Erisman, professor of environment and sustainability in Leiden. Other experts endorse this. According to Erisman, the actual emissions at the time of the ruling are the starting point – and not a situation that was the case, for example, twenty years ago.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture (LNV) acknowledges that not every project “can be ruled out with 100 percent that no more nitrogen will be emitted”. He does not know how many projects emit more nitrogen, because this is not monitored nationally and the provinces are responsible for granting permits. The ministry ‘monitors’ the reuse of nitrogen space and is in contact with the provinces about this.
Also read: What you can do with nitrogen rights from companies that have stopped
Nature areas in poor condition
The Dutch nature reserves are currently in a very bad state because too much nitrogen has been deposited for years. According to experts, nature is additionally burdened by puzzling with nitrogen. According to Raoul Beunen, associate professor at the Open University and an expert in the field of nitrogen policy, the government has ignored advice from the Council of State, among others, about the dangers of trade in nitrogen.
After the decision of the Council of State, according to Beunen, the central government had to find a solution to the permit problem for construction projects that came to a standstill: “But that solution only made the problem worse. The calculations in the trade of nitrogen space are often based on a paper reality.”
Last year, research by NRC even though hundreds of farmers close to nature reserves have been given permission to expand their livestock and that nature has suffered additional damage as a result. In the coalition agreement, the new cabinet sets itself a major task: nitrogen emissions must be halved by 2030 compared to 2019.
Nitrogen puzzle page 4-5
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 28, 2022