ANPPiet Adema, outgoing Minister of Agriculture, and Christianne van der Wal, outgoing Minister for Nature and Nitrogen
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 01:12
The provinces believe that the national government should do more to combat nitrogen emissions in nature reserves. They no longer want to bear responsibility for the lion’s share of the nitrogen challenge in the Netherlands, reports Trouw on the basis of a joint part of the provinces. At least half of the necessary nitrogen reduction must come from The Hague policy, the twelve provinces write.
That wish is at odds with the nitrogen policy of the responsible outgoing minister Christianne van der Wal (VVD). A year and a half ago, he specifically put the provinces to work on solving the nitrogen problem. But the provinces now say they expect a national nitrogen approach to be more effective.
The grumpiness among the provinces has increased recently. The province of Overijssel threatened to stop its nitrogen approach in December and other provinces also indicated that they were concerned. The reason was that Van der Wal’s nitrogen fund containing 24 billion was delayed, while it is essential for farmers, and therefore also for the provinces, to know which direction the government wants to go.
In the meantime, nature can no longer wait, say critics. For the whole of the Netherlands, nitrogen emissions must be reduced by 50 percent by 2030, but it is currently unclear how this should be done.
New cabinet
The fall of Rutte-IV did not help in this regard. In addition, the parties currently at the formation table consider nitrogen to be less of a problem than the outgoing cabinet.
The PVV believes that there is no nitrogen problem. This is more nuanced at BBB, NSC and VVD, but reducing nitrogen is not at the top of their priority list for those parties either. They prefer to look at how the Netherlands can get rid of the nitrogen lock. According to them, emissions do not necessarily have to be reduced for this.
2024-01-11 00:12:48
#Provinces #demanding #Hague #nitrogen #emissions
