{"id":51561,"date":"2025-04-26T07:36:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T07:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/51561\/"},"modified":"2025-04-26T07:36:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T07:36:24","slug":"netherlands-delays-nitrogen-emissions-target-defying-its-own-judges-and-the-eu-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/51561\/","title":{"rendered":"Netherlands delays nitrogen emissions target, defying its own judges and the EU \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

The decision comes despite a Dutch court ruling in January<\/a> that ordered the government to meet its existing 2030 deadline to protect sensitive nature areas from nitrogen pollution, most of it from manure, with fertilizer use also contributing. Brussels may also weigh in, as the delay risks breaching the EU\u2019s Habitats Directive, which obliges member states to prevent the deterioration of protected ecosystems and to restore them \u201cwithin a short period.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Netherlands has long been ground zero for Europe\u2019s nitrogen crisis<\/a>, with its high-density farming blamed for dumping excessive nitrogen into Natura 2000 conservation areas. The country ranks among the worst in the EU<\/a> for nitrogen pollution per hectare, at around four times the European average \u2014 far more than its landscapes and protected habitats can absorb.<\/p>\n

Successive governments have struggled to square environmental obligations with farmer pushback<\/a>, a conflict that helped topple the last coalition and fueled the rise of Wiersma\u2019s BBB<\/a>, which became the largest party in the Dutch Senate in 2023 and joined the national coalition government<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Five more years<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new plan includes a \u20ac2.2 billion \u201cstarter package\u201d to encourage farmers near vulnerable nature sites to downsize, relocate or invest in cleaner technologies. The package covers voluntary buyouts for livestock farmers, including \u20ac750 million for those who choose to shut down and \u20ac627 million for dairy producers who scale back. Another \u20ac100 million is set aside for nature restoration.<\/p>\n

The government is also preparing to overhaul how nitrogen is regulated. Up until now, Dutch policy has been based on how much nitrogen pollution settles in protected areas \u2014 the so-called critical deposition value (KDW). Wiersma\u2019s plan signals a move away from that system toward setting emission limits directly at the source, on individual farms and factories. How those caps will be calculated remains unclear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis plan offers perspective for farmers and space for innovation while we keep working toward nature recovery,\u201d Wiersma told reporters ahead of the adoption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The decision comes despite a Dutch court ruling in January that ordered the government to meet its existing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[3971,7156,6178,3928,5168,30,6659,2438,1396,27644,5398,728,2000,299,5187,27645,6644,10779,27646,10686,1302,27647,27648,46,856,413,3053],"class_list":{"0":"post-51561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-agriculture","9":"tag-breaches","10":"tag-conflict","11":"tag-conservation","12":"tag-construction","13":"tag-courts","14":"tag-crisis","15":"tag-department","16":"tag-dumping-duties","17":"tag-dutch-politics","18":"tag-emissions","19":"tag-environment","20":"tag-eu","21":"tag-europe","22":"tag-european","23":"tag-farmer-protest","24":"tag-farmers","25":"tag-farms","26":"tag-femke-wiersma","27":"tag-fertilizers","28":"tag-innovation","29":"tag-livestock","30":"tag-natura-2000","31":"tag-policy","32":"tag-pollution","33":"tag-space","34":"tag-the-netherlands"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114403120491094052","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}