Jetten will steer climate policy ‘unheard of tight’

Minister Jetten (Climate, D66) will take full control of the climate agreement before the end of this year. Ministers responsible for agriculture, traffic, industry and housing must submit the progress of the sustainability plans in their area every three months.

“There will be an unheard of tight control over the implementation of the climate agreement,” says one person involved. The so-called ‘progress consultation’, which coordinated the implementation of the agreement under the leadership of former minister Ed Nijpels (VVD), will be given a different role after three years. Nijpels will step down as chairman later this year.

Jetten will present the administrative changes to the House of Representatives before the summer recess, according to a tour among insiders. The responsible Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate does not want to comment on the plans. “We first want to inform the House of Representatives and not run ahead of our own music,” says a spokesperson.

Under the tighter direction of the cabinet, the agreements from the 2019 climate agreement and the more ambitious goals of the coalition agreement at the end of 2021 must be merged. The intention is to implement the new governance model of the agreement in November.

The progress of climate policy will soon be reported to the House every six months instead of annually. This year there will also be a Climate Council consisting of eight to ten independent scientists. That council will issue solicited and unsolicited advice, as is already the case in the United Kingdom. Since 2008, the Climate Change Committee has regularly submitted proposals.

The climate agreement wants the CO₂emissions in 2030 will be 49 percent lower than in 1990. The implementation of this was the responsibility of the previous government. But with the exception of the then minister Eric Wiebes (Climate, VVD), the ministers showed little involvement in the agreement. The ministers responsible for agriculture, traffic and housing were rarely, if ever, present during consultations on the climate agreement. In a conversation with NRC earlier this year, Jetten noted that those involved in the climate agreement “sometimes even had to go against the grain from The Hague”.

Nor did the necessary support come when it turned out that the sustainability measures were not going fast enough to achieve the goals. At the end of last year, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency calculated that the targeted 49 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 was “not yet in sight”.

Since the end of last year, the coalition agreement of Rutte IV has aimed at an emission reduction of “at least 55 percent” by 2030. This additional reduction must be ensured, for example, by tightening the CO₂levy for companies and a national isolation program. Last week it was already announced that after 2025 the traditional central heating boiler should be replaced by a more sustainable alternative, such as the heat pump.

Jetten already indicated in February that he wanted to put an end to the polder around climate policy. “In recent years, we as politicians have really thrown a lot of climate policy at others. […] My message now is: this is the coalition agreement and we are not going to negotiate it,” he said in a statement NRC†

vast majority positive

The vast majority of those involved in the climate agreement consulted react positively to the new policy. Many changes that Jetten wants to introduce are already discussed in an ‘advice memorandum’ that was issued in November under the responsibility of the leadership of the climate agreement. Because the minister has not yet presented any definitive plans, none of the discussion partners want to be named.

Since 2019, representatives of the business community, government and civil society organizations have formed five consultative bodies, which are called ‘climate tables’. These concerned the sub-areas of traffic, agriculture, industry, electricity and the built environment. One person involved: “It never became entirely clear what the functions of those tables were. What is their responsibility, what is the government’s responsibility? I think it is very good that this is now becoming clear.”

Now the various departments are given responsibility for implementation and the tables are given more of a function in the practical elaboration. In the new set-up, the companies further lose their role at the consultation tables, while the influence of lower governments (municipalities, provinces) is actually strengthened. The table devoted to the sustainable production of electricity – by 2030 70 percent of the electricity must be renewable – will be broadened and will deal with the future energy system of the Netherlands.

The so-called progress meeting of the climate agreement will no longer coordinate policy, but will play a role in the democratic embedding of policy. The chairmanship of those consultations will change hands; Ed Nijpels (72) has announced internally that he will leave, according to insiders. The former minister was already involved in the establishment of the energy agreement in 2013 and was chairman of the Climate Council that formed the basis of the climate agreement. Nijpels says he only wants to respond when the cabinet announces its plans.