Planning bureau: only new lockdown will help cabinet achieve climate target | Inland

Although there is no international climate target for this year, environmental club Urgenda has succeeded in lawsuits that the Netherlands must have reduced at least a quarter of its CO2 emissions this year compared to 1990.

The ‘Urgenda judgment’ is already having very expensive consequences. For example, the cabinet has previously drawn a lot of money (2 billion euros) to close a relatively new coal-fired power station in Amsterdam and to distribute green subsidies. The corona crisis is a windfall: the car is more often at home and the economy has collapsed, with all the green benefits that this entails.

Nevertheless, the PBL remains gloomy as ever: it is still uncertain whether the Urgenda target will be achieved. In the ‘bad’ scenario, the planning office takes into account the absence of a new lockdown, cold autumn months (result: more heating) and more electricity production in the Netherlands due to the ratio between the prices of coal and gas.

High temperatures

In another scenario, Minister Eric Wiebes (Economic Affairs and Climate) will pass the climate judgment. In that case there must be a second lockdown, relatively high temperatures for the time of year and less electricity production.

“The cabinet will achieve the Urgenda target more easily with a lockdown,” says PBL climate chief Pieter Boot. “We have had a mild autumn so far. But every week counts. It is not guaranteed that we will achieve the goal. ”

The cabinet also has some leeway next year. Wiebes announced last spring that he has extra measures available to intervene. For example, the VVD minister is thinking of putting coal-fired power stations on the back burner.

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