And we are in october. So after our march elections our politicians acted like a bunch of kids excluding all kind of parties and then they had a holiday break and now we are back to trying the original mix from our last coalition.
When the old government is still ruling after an election they are not allowed to propose laws that change things a lot (that should be set by the government now in formation) so that slows down solutions to our many problems.
Some recent articles:
The EU asks NL for a more ambitious climate target then the current one for 2030 to bring it inline with current EU targets
Our current policy for heavy industry is at odds with the EU´s overall goal. Our current fix is a mix of carbon capture and storage and blue hydrogen. The EU target is to take this straight to green hydrogen.
Our policies for electric cars and energy closure are in accordance with the Fit For 55 package.
Current dutch target is a reduction of 52% compared to 1990 emissions while this needs to be closer to 65% over the whole EU with at least a 68% reduction in the Netherlands.
https://www.nu.nl/klimaat/6158698/europa-vraagt-ook-nederland-om-een-ambitieuzer-klimaatdoel.htmlThe IMF requested the same but that articles has less numbers.
Current policy not on target to hit 49% reduction in 2030 and 95% in 2050 relative to 1990.
https://www.nu.nl/economie/6159507/imf-roept-nederland-op-om-meer-te-doen-tegen-klimaatverandering.htmlLinked IMF report:
https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2021/09/27/mcs092821-kingdom-of-the-netherlands-the-netherlands-staff-concluding-statement-2021-art-iv-missionFor the next year an extra 6,8 Billion has been reserved for climate change. The rain event of this summer surely helped highlighting climate change as a very current and local thing. Much less abstract then in the past.
It is quite a bit of money but it is mostly for plugging gaps.
For policy we must align with the EU goal as i wrote about above and we also have to match the goals we committed to earlier as forced by the URGENDA case. We came through the economic part of the pandemic quite well so our expected growth for next year is expected to be problematic (since it is not growing of green sources). And of course the coming winter better be mild.
So the monies:
600 million subsidy for electric cars and vans
3 billion for stimulating renewables and subsidy for CCS
750 million for upgrading old pipelines to use H2 for use in buildings
315 million for rest over heat to warm 120 thousand homes in the province of South Holland (from industry around Rotterdam probably)
A subsidy of 1000 to 2100 euro per homeowner is coming and also a program for improving isolation in homes (rentals and owned). Guess this in the 3 billion package.
https://www.nu.nl/klimaat/6158246/extra-geld-naar-klimaat-maar-onduidelijk-welk-doel-wordt-nagestreefd.htmlOne of the subsidy areas which a new government must look into is subsidies for solar panels.
The current idea is to decrease the amount of energy you can give back at consumer tariff from 2023 by 9% per year ending in 0% in 2030.
Currently what you generate is reduced from the overall use bill (the consumer tariff). So in the future it would reduce at a producer tariff which is a lot lower.
To reduce stress on the grid we need a mix of home batteries and EVs functioning as such.
https://www.nu.nl/wonen/6158658/zorgen-op-zonnepanelenmarkt-vanwege-onduidelijkheid-over-subsidie.htmlWe need some more integrated solution (a subsidy for combining the 3 things above).
We also need that in general for the whole of the country if we are to find a solution for the nitrogen problem while hitting EU targets and also building enough homes for everyone.