Numerous construction projects are not granted a permit because at least five provinces have suspended trade in the so-called nitrogen space or are considering doing so. This is evident from a tour of NRC along the provinces. Trade can be detrimental to nature. Provinces are becoming increasingly aware of this.
In the trade, about which NRC wrote last month, the nitrogen rights of companies that have not functioned for years are reused or sold on. Provinces and municipalities use those rights to allow construction projects to go ahead, but that is probably not allowed under the Nature Conservation Act.
The province of Overijssel temporarily stopped the trade in nitrogen space between companies last week. Fifty permit applications, including for construction and infrastructure projects, have been put on hold. Flevoland also does not currently issue permits. It is possible to submit new applications, but no decisions are made about current and new applications.
Noord-Holland stated in an alarming letter last week to nitrogen minister Christianne van der Wal (VVD), who has been recognized by NRC, that the trade in nitrogen space threatens to become “impossible” due to recent court decisions. “It feels like standing on an ice floe, which is getting smaller and smaller and therefore unstable.” Friesland and Limburg are thinking about trade in their provinces.
In May 2019, the Council of State stated that for years too little had been done to reduce nitrogen emissions. Nature suffered as a result and biodiversity deteriorated. Hundreds of construction projects have been halted after this verdict.
To get these projects going again, a complicated system has been devised to search for nitrogen space. For example, provinces use the nitrogen space of closed farms, burned down department stores or factories. Sometimes this leads to more nitrogen precipitation on vulnerable nature areas. This is not allowed, according to the ruling of the Council of State.
Also read: ‘The trade in nitrogen rights by municipalities and provinces is harmful to nature’
Nitrogen sensitive
It was after studying court decisions that Overijssel decided to stop the trade in nitrogen space, says Agriculture Commissioner Gert Harm ten Bolscher (SGP). For example, the Council of State ruled at the end of last year that the province of Brabant had too easily issued a permit for a highway section, for which it removed the nitrogen space from a farm that had been bought up. This created the risk that there would be too much nitrogen emissions.
Overijssel has 24 nature reserves, 21 of which are ‘nitrogen sensitive’. “These are often dry areas on the high sandy soils in Twente with plants that are very sensitive to nitrogen precipitation,” says Ten Bolscher. The province wants to protect the vulnerable nature, he says, “but we also want to give certainty to entrepreneurs who start construction projects. When we issue a permit, we want to be sure that we don’t have to revoke it later.”
The ruling party D66 and the Party for the Animals believe that the trade in nitrogen space must come “immediately”. According to Member of Parliament Tjeerd de Groot of D66, it is “a shame if the minister continues to stumble over the goat paths of the previous cabinet”, referring to the nitrogen puzzle.
Some provinces also believe that it should be easier to delete the unused nitrogen space on a permit. A farmer who has kept a thousand pigs for twenty years, but has a permit for two thousand animals, should not be able to use all that space, says Geert Gabriëls, deputy for nitrogen in Limburg. “If we fill up the unused nitrogen space everywhere, the crisis will not get smaller, but bigger.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of February 14, 2022