Dutch cabinet agrees plan to slash nitrogen pollution levels

The Dutch cabinet has finalised agreement on a new package of measures to reduce nitrogen-based pollution in the Netherlands with a budget of €20 billion to implement them.

The plans are being seen as a first major test of the centre-right coalition government’s promise to end the gridlock in agriculture and the construction industry that followed a Council of State ruling in 2019 on emission limits.

The deal involves establishing kilometre-wide zones around 15 areas of vulnerable countryside – such as the Veluwe heathland region – where emissions must be slashed. A further 100 areas will get a 500 metre zone.

This means farms and other businesses located within the zones will have to close, move or bring in measures to slash their nitrogen production drastically. The government also wants to establish a limit of 2.6 cows per hectare on livestock farms by 2035 but says no farmers will be forced to sell their businesses.

The package will require change but farmers will “still be able to do their jobs,” said farm minister Jaimi van Essen at the presentation of the plans. “We think this package will meet the terms of the court ruling and we are confident it will.”

The plans in short:

• Farmers must cut ammonia emissions by 42–46% by 2035, when compared with 2019 levels. Since 2019 emissions have gone down by 18%.
• Industry and the transport sector must halve their nitrogen oxide emissions
• An additional 20% reduction is required in buffer zones around Natura 2000 nature areas
• A 1,000-metre restriction zone will be established around the 15 most heavily affected areas and a 500-metre zone around 85 other areas of countryside
• Farmers within the zones will have to innovate, reduce livestock density, relocate, or stop farming altogether
• If voluntary targets are not met, a mandatory “guarantee” mechanism will kick in, meaning a compulsory reduction in livestock numbers across the board
• The current threshold of 0.005 mol in nitrogen deposits per hectare per year will not be raised until 2027 although provinces that have already taken steps to increase the limit may continue to do so.

Draft legislation to implement the package will be debated in October. By January the cabinet hopes to finalise details about the buffer zones and by the end of next year, provinces should be able to extend building permits again, Van Essen said.

In May 2019, the Council of State ruled the government’s strategy for reducing excess nitrogen was in breach of EU directives on protecting vulnerable habitats and that the way the release of nitrogen was being calculated when assessing construction project licences was questionable.

However, efforts to cut pollution so far have largely failed and successive governments have been struggling to find a way to do so. There is no guarantee that the new government will be any more successful.

• What’s all the fuss about nitrogen in the Netherlands

The current cabinet is a minority administration and must win the support of either far-right or left-wing parties in both houses of parliament to see its legislation enacted in law. Support for farmers is stronger on the right, and therefore an alliance with Progressief Nederland is seen by commentators as a more likely option.

The official documents outlines all the steps that ministers have taken to meet MPs concerns, Van Essen said.

As well as farming, the problem has impacted on the construction sector, which has often been unable to build because of the nitrogen released during the building process. This has hit residential and infrastructure developments in particular.