State Secretary Van Weyenberg believes that there is no future for Tata Steel in IJmuiden if the company remains as dirty as it is now. “The way it is now, it can no longer be,” he said this morning in response to a RIVM study published yesterday.
The research shows that people who live near the company are exposed to far more harmful substances than people who live elsewhere. The Noord-Holland deputy Jeroen Olthof said yesterday that the steel industry in the IJmond can only survive if the adverse effects on health and the living environment are reduced as quickly as possible. The outgoing State Secretary for Infrastructure used similar words this morning. He said that “something happened” yesterday.
Permits stricter
Van Weyenberg is going to talk to the province. He would like to help them make the permits stricter and enforce the conditions better. The Secretary of State also said that he wants to do his best in the EU to tighten the rules for the steel industry. “But the latter will take a long time and the local residents can’t wait for that.”
Van Weyenberg pointed out that conversations about Tata were often about jobs, and nowadays also about the climate. “But it should also really be about people’s health. That deserves a fully-fledged place in the choices of the coming months.”
The director of Tata acknowledged yesterday that the company could have started measures to make the factory cleaner earlier. Van Weyenberg said: “Do it faster and more ambitiously.” He added that there are several ways in which Tata can emit less CO2, for example by using hydrogen or by storing CO2.
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