“Just, doable and ambitious.” According to climate minister Rob Jetten, these words describe his package of measures to further reduce CO2 emissions. Yet only a small part of the subsidy pie goes to people in (energy) poverty. A large part goes to industry and hydrogen production.
Everyone must be able to participate in the transition to a sustainable future, Jetten emphasized last week when presenting the climate package. “For example, people in our country who have too little money for an electric car, solar panels or a heat pump, but who suffer from a drafty house and a high energy bill.”
The package of 28 billion euros represents a turnaround. Until now, most climate money has gone to greening electricity. Thanks to the subsidies for solar parks and wind turbines, almost half of our electricity is now sustainable.
This new package focuses on greening buildings and industry. Homes must be insulated on a large scale, just like business premises and ‘social real estate’ such as schools and museums. To heat all those buildings, there will be more (hybrid) heat pumps and heat networks. The government is spending a total of 9 billion euros on this.
A new car will soon cost 200 euros extra
But only a small part of those subsidies go to people with a small wallet. The measures that the cabinet itself classifies under the heading of ‘climate justice’ amount to 900 million euros: 3 percent of the total climate package.
This category includes 425 million euros for making vulnerable neighborhoods more sustainable and 100 million euros for installing solar panels on rental properties. Sustainability loans from the Heat Fund will also become more widely accessible (300 million euros) and do-it-yourself vouchers for sustainability will be introduced (50 million euros).
The National Insulation Program (3 billion euros) focuses partly on the rental sector and on the draftiest houses, but also includes subsidies for people with a well-filled bank account. With more than 500 million euros in subsidies on second-hand electric cars, the cabinet wants to make electric driving possible for more people. But this is also the only measure that is paid directly from a new tax. As a result, a new car will soon cost 200 euros more.
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Most money for hydrogen
All these subsidies are nothing compared to the gigantic expenditure on the production of green hydrogen: 7.5 billion euros. That hydrogen will soon be especially important to make heavy industry more sustainable, and to a lesser extent to provide the country with electricity when solar panels and wind turbines do not supply electricity for a while. The government is therefore also investing 1 billion euros in converting power plants so that they can run on hydrogen.
In addition, the cabinet spends almost 4 billion euros on other funds to make the industry more sustainable. 560 million euros will be made available for greenhouse horticulture.
‘Strongest shoulders bear the heaviest burden’
The polluter must pay and the strongest shoulders must bear the heaviest burden, Jetten said last week. One measure that should ensure this is an adjustment of the energy tax. Now companies that use millions of cubic meters of natural gas pay relatively little tax, while households are charged a rate twelve times higher.
That difference will become smaller from 2025, according to Jetten’s proposal for new tax rates. Households continue to pay the same amount for the first 800 cubic meters of gas, but the rate then rises sharply. The average household, which uses 1,200 cubic meters per year, will pay more than 70 euros in extra tax per year.
People who use a lot of gas lose more. In 2030, the rate for the very largest users will remain ten times lower than the tax paid by smaller companies.
The higher gas tax is offset by a lower tax on electricity. As a result, an average household will soon save 90 euros per year. A Jetten spokesperson emphasizes that this is a “thinking” and that the cabinet will only determine the exact rates later.
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‘Equalify rates more fairly’
Rob van Tilburg of environmental organization Natuur & Milieu thinks the adjusted energy tax is a good step. But he had hoped for more: “It is good that the rates are being leveled more, but as far as we are concerned, it could have been a bit faster and fairer.”
“We have to prove to the Dutch citizen that those with the largest CO2 emissions simply have to pay for it,” says Aniek Moonen, chairman of the Young Climate Movement.
Moonen says that the cabinet must set strict conditions for subsidies to industry. “If we want to help make that industry more sustainable, we must match it with the promise of climate neutrality in 2050.” According to her, it is now unclear whether some companies actually have a future in an emission-free country.
Cabinet is still calculating
To reduce emissions in industry, the government wants to increase the CO2 tax for these companies. But the amount of that tax has not yet been determined either; the cabinet wants to investigate this first.
So Jetten’s climate package mainly tells us who will benefit from climate subsidies in the coming years. But how the burden is shared between citizens and businesses will only become clear later.
2023-05-04 03:02:31
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