The government must reduce nitrogen emissions through national measures, according to the twelve provinces. At least half of the required reduction must come from Hague policy.
The twelve provinces believe that the cabinet provides too little clarity about the policy and does not make enough money available.
What will happen to the nitrogen fund containing 24 billion euros has been unclear since the fall of the cabinet. Drenthe wanted 4.5 billion euros from the fund.
At the end of last year, the province of Drenthe announced that due to the uncertainty about financing, ‘it is very difficult to start area processes. “We can now only implement short-term plans if money is available from the ministry. In addition, we have packages of measures in preparation, but we do not know whether we will receive money for them either. This causes processes to get stuck.”
Nitrogen emissions must be halved throughout the Netherlands by 2030 compared to 2019, in order for nature to recover. The quality of nature reserves is under pressure because too much nitrogen ends up in the water and soil.
The parties that are now sitting around the table to see whether a new cabinet can be formed (PVV, VVD, NSC, BBB) consider nitrogen to be less of a problem than the outgoing cabinet, they want to see how the Netherlands can get rid of the nitrogen lock.