The government could save €5bn a year if it goes for the most efficient ways to reduce greenhouse gases, reports Monday’s Financieele Dagblad.

According to a confidential report by the country’s two most important energy think tanks, the cabinet is ignoring cheaper solutions for tackling greenhouse gas emissions in favour of energy conservation and renewable power.
The paper says the report by the Energy Research Centre and the Environment and Nature Planning Bureau was presented to the environment ministry in April.
The government has agreed to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% by 2020, double renewable energy production to 20% and increase energy saving from 1% to 2%.
To achieve this, the government will need between €8bn and €9bn, say the ECN and MNP. However, the cost could be more than halved to between €3bn and €4bn if the cabinet put more emphasise on measures such as storing the CO2 produced by coal-fired power plants and expanding nuclear power.
The environment ministry will announce its official policy on climate change in September and said it is to early’ to react to the claims made by the ECN and MNP.