Greenhouse gas emissions in the Netherlands increased by 2.1 percent last year compared to 2020. This is apparent from an initial estimate of emission figures by Statistics Netherlands and RIVM, which was published on Wednesday. Due to the increase, the Netherlands no longer complied with the Urgenda judgment from the 2015 climate case in 2021. In it, the judge ruled that the Netherlands must have reduced emissions by 25 percent by 2020 compared to 1990. In 2020, the Urgenda target was still narrowly achieved.
In 2020, the Netherlands owed it in part to the corona crisis that the Urgenda target was achieved. In that year, emissions of greenhouse gases, such as CO₂ and methane, decreased by 8.8 percent. In 2021, the Netherlands was again below the target, partly due to higher energy consumption in the first half of the year as a result of a cold winter. Although the electricity sector produced 2 percent less, emissions increased by 2 percent. This was because, due to the high gas price, more electricity was generated in coal-fired power stations, which emit more greenhouse gases.
Significantly less gas was consumed in the last quarter of 2021, mainly by industry. Companies bought less gas because of the high gas prices. Traffic emissions remained the same compared to 2020, where there was a decrease in the previous years.