New nitrogen ruling threatens to thwart more projects, cabinet sets up special committee

The Netherlands is in danger of becoming increasingly locked down because there is no solution to the nitrogen problem. The situation is so dire that the cabinet has decided to set up a ministerial nitrogen committee led by Prime Minister Dick Schoof. The immediate reason is a new ruling by the Council of State in December, which makes it even more difficult to develop activities that release nitrogen. In the meantime, The Hague is also anxiously awaiting a court ruling next Wednesday in a case initiated by Greenpeace, in which the environmental organization is asking the state to do more more quickly to reduce nitrogen emissions.

The fact that the government is setting up a ministerial committee shows that the political urgency is great. In addition to Schoof, the committee will include the ministers involved in the nitrogen dossier, namely ministers Mona Keijzer (Public Housing and Spatial Planning, BBB), Femke Wiersma (Agriculture, NSC) and Barry Madlener (Infrastructure, PVV). Ruben Brekelmans (Defence, VVD) is also expected to join.

In recent years, ministerial committees have been established more often for major issues, such as the handling of the benefits scandal, the aftermath of the corona crisis and the reception of Ukrainian refugees.

A nitrogen ruling by the Council of State, the highest administrative court in the country, negatively surprised the cabinet last month. Since the infamous Council ruling in 2019, hardly any nature permits required to emit nitrogen have been granted. The Council of State then ruled that nature is in such a bad condition that additional nitrogen is no longer allowed. It remained possible to start new projects in a roundabout way, but the Council has now canceled this in the new ruling.

‘Internal netting’

The December ruling revolves around the company Rendac, which processes animal carcasses. Rendac wanted to install a new installation that will emit nitrogen. The company already had a permit for two other facilities, which were never built. This left nitrogen space available, meaning the new installation could still be put into use, Rendac believed.

This is called ‘internal netting’: if you ensure that less nitrogen is emitted than for which there is a permit, you can do something else with that ‘space’. Until recently, no new permit was required. Farmers also use this principle: for example, a chicken farmer installs a better air filter in his stable, which reduces nitrogen emissions and allows him to keep more chickens without a permit.

However, action group MOB (Mobilization for the Environment Foundation) filed a lawsuit against the construction of the new installation at Rendac. In that case, the judge ruled that a permit must also be applied for if ‘internal netting’ is used. This makes it even more complicated to allow new activities, because strict rules apply to every permit application.

In addition, the Council of State ruled that a permit must be applied for retroactively for all projects that were created with internal netting.

Crusade

In recent weeks, the government began to realize that the ruling could lead to delays in many ongoing projects. An official working group that mapped out the consequences gave infrastructure projects, Schiphol, training areas that Defense wants to build and housing construction as examples. Minister of Spatial Planning and Housing Mona Keijzer calls the situation that has now arisen “very complicated”. On Friday, prior to the Council of Ministers, she spoke of a “crusade against all kinds of companies, for which defense, aviation and housing pay the bill.”

Mona Keijzer ignores the fact that previous cabinets and the current cabinet have been doing too little for years to meet the legal requirements for reducing nitrogen

Keijzer is referring to the lawsuits by environmental organization MOB, but does not take into account that previous cabinets and the current cabinet have been doing too little for years to meet the legal requirements for reducing nitrogen. The Schoof cabinet even weakened Rutte-IV’s policy, while insufficient progress had already been made under that cabinet. Minister Wiersma (Agriculture, BBB) still has to come up with the concrete elaboration of the new nitrogen policy that she has announced.

According to current legislation, nitrogen deposition must be at a ‘healthy’ level in 40 percent of the vulnerable nature in the Netherlands by 2025, 50 percent in 2030 and 74 percent in 2035. Greenpeace demands in the lawsuit that the government in the coming years a total of more than 80 percent of vulnerable nature is protected against nitrogen damage, which is seen as unfeasible by many experts.

Minister Wiersma (Agriculture, BBB) still has to come up with the concrete elaboration of the new nitrogen policy that she announced

The ministerial committee must now look at the extent of the consequences of the judicial decisions and what the government can do to limit the damage. Keijzer called the idea that the government should now halve the livestock population “too simple” on Friday. After the cabinet meeting, Agriculture Minister Wiersma said that she wanted to look for “a structural solution” with her colleagues, but also that she did not want to “ask the impossible” from farmers, and that other sectors must contribute to a solution.

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Keijzer believes that the Netherlands has ended up in “tunnel vision” with the current nitrogen legislation and, during a visit to Brussels this week, argued for more “balance in the [Europese] policy so that nature is not the only interest” that is taken into account. The chance that the Netherlands will gain more space within the EU is not great, because the obligations to better protect Dutch nature have not been fulfilled for years.




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