Report: ‘Damage to people and nature due to air pollution in the Netherlands one and a half times as much as seven years earlier’

The emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases in the Netherlands are declining. Nevertheless, the financial damage caused by these emissions to people and the environment increases sharply. How is that possible?

“It is a strange message,” says researcher Sander de Bruyn of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, which analyzed the most recent figures from 2022 and compared them with earlier own research from 2015. In a report published on Thursday, the Planning Office states that the damage to people and nature due to air pollution in the Netherlands is 46 billion as soon as the “monetary,” a year and a half years’ time, “” and half a year before, “” on the age of 100, “” on the age of 100, “and a half times before,” on the age of 206 billionly. ” was estimated. Now the damage is 4.6 percent of gross domestic product, compared to 4.5 percent seven years earlier.

The amount of 46 billion is a ‘lower limit’ and a ‘conservative estimate’. It can be much more, because much is still unknown about the harmfulness of many substances and, moreover, the researchers have not been able to take into account possible ’tilting points’, on which quite suddenly irreversibly large damage to nature occurs.

Every year in the Netherlands, an estimated 8,000 people die early due to air pollution

That the damage to the environment has risen faster than the emissions decreased can be explained. The bottom line is that the value of a clean environment is rising considerably. De Bruyn: “We have become a bit more prosperous. And if people are more prosperous, they attach more value to a clean environment.

Furthermore, aging strikes and the elderly are relatively vulnerable to conditions caused by air pollution. Damage to nature has also risen because the price of nature quality has become higher. De Bruyn: “If more people want to walk in nature, but nature and its quality decrease, the value of nature increases.” Finally, the scientific knowledge about the harmfulness of pollutants has also been increased. For example, more is known about the risks of moderate health air quality.

Alzheimer’s

The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency calls on the government to deploy ‘even stronger’ on harmful substances. All the more so because so little is known about many substances; Consider the possible health effects of PFAS and the relationship between particulate matter and crop protection products and Alzheimer’s disease. Environmental pollution makes people sick or worse; Every year in the Netherlands, an estimated eight thousand people die early due to air pollution. “Environmental pollution also ensures that the quality and resilience of ecosystems are affected. This attack produces various losses of prosperity, for example because species are deteriorating in the number,” the research said.

There is also simply damage to buildings or even cars; Air pollution must be washed more often through air pollution. In addition, the “individual costs,” the investigation said. “Take, for example, an asthma attack caused by environmental pollution. In financial terms, the damage consists of the costs of the medicine, but these drugs cannot always remove the asthma attack completely and have side effects. The additional disease burden and the associated discomfort make the experienced loss of wealth greater than the costs of drugs alone.”

Not to mention the loss of prosperity after early death. Researcher De Bruyn: “In the event of early death, the loss of prosperity is of course much greater than just the costs of a funeral. We have made an estimate of that.”

The Planning Bureau hopes that this report “makes thinking”. Researcher Sander de Bruyn mentions healthcare as an example. “We spend a lot of money on health care. Then the discussion is often: are we going to improve care, or do we do more in prevention? Well, reducing environmental pollution is a form of prevention.”

Cattle cultivation

Most environmental damage, 13.7 billion euros per year, is caused by mobility; Car and train traffic, shipping, et cetera, mainly due to nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Agriculture causes annual damage to nature in particular from 12.7 billion, mainly by ammonia and methane.

In third place, the industry, with 9.6 billion euros in environmental damage annually, is mainly due to greenhouse gases. The researchers have also looked more in detail at the largest polluting sectors. There, livestock farming is at the top of the list, with 8.5 billion euros annually, in particular by keeping cattle, with the emissions of ammonia and methane. Road traffic is in two place, with 6.7 billion euros in damage annually, due to carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides.

Due to climate change and heat stress, people die earlier

According to the report, the environmental damage is more than 56 percent from greenhouse gases. More than 80 percent of that damage is caused by carbon dioxide emissions, CO₂. These greenhouse gases lead to climate change and therefore to additional costs for, for example, dyke improvements, and indirectly to health damage. “Due to climate change and heat stress, people die earlier,” says De Bruyn.

More than 42 percent of environmental damage is caused by substances that cause air pollution and thus health damage, such as particulate matter, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and ammonia. The Planning Bureau has also calculated the total environmental damage of the much -discussed nitrogen. “Nitrogen in the Netherlands causes environmental damage through the air, through the water and through the soil. If we have all the emissions of nitrogen -related substances ([-] Adding together, we come to a claim burden of 16.5 billion euros in the year 2022. ”

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