CBS: Urgenda target to reduce emissions not achieved | Inland

In 2020, the target was just met. The highest court ruled in 2019 that the State is obliged to adhere to the Urgenda target in order to combat climate change.

The increase in greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 is mainly caused by the relatively cold start of 2021. As a result, homes, schools, offices and healthcare institutions, among others, used more natural gas than in 2020, according to Statistics Netherlands. In agriculture, greenhouse gas emissions were also higher due to the relatively cold and less sunny first half of 2021. There, emissions were 2 percent higher than in 2020.

The electricity sector also emitted 2 percent more greenhouse gases, while electricity production was actually lower. This is because natural gas became more expensive from the second quarter of 2021, generating more electricity from coal. The price for coal rose less rapidly. The use of coal releases more CO2 than the use of natural gas. In the mobility sector and in industry, emissions remained about the same as in 2020.

Last summer, director of sustainability organization Urgenda Marjan Minnesma said in TV program Buitenhof that the organization would go back to court if the 25 percent reduction was not achieved. She then wanted to ask the judge to impose a penalty on the State. At the time, that was still about emissions for 2020.

The climate target was achieved in 2020, among other things, through a reduction in coal use and luck: it was a relatively warm year. The heating in Dutch households and workplaces was therefore less on. Corona measures also played a “limited” role. The industry emitted about the same amount of greenhouse gases as a year earlier, but road traffic emissions fell by 15 percent.