2030 deadline for nitrogen reduction target likely abandoned, say insiders

The 2030 deadline for halving nitrogen emissions, a significant point of contention in recent years, is unlikely to be included in the nitrogen law. Insiders in The Hague have informed De Telegraaf, that the outgoing nitrogen minister, Christianne van der Wal of the VVD, will not present the bill with the 2030 target to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament.

Currently, the year 2035 is set as the goal in the law, but the previous Cabinet wanted to move it up. The deadline for the reduction of nitrogen emissions was moved up from 2035 to 2030 in the coalition agreement between the VVD, D66, CDA and CU. This adjustment was viewed as an insurmountable burden by many farmers and the provinces and was always at the center of demonstrations against the Cabinet's nitrogen police in recent years.

The 2030 deadline even led to a crisis within the coalition, especially after former CDA leader and minister Wopke Hoekstra said the year 2030 was "not sacred.” The CDA later expressed intentions to "renegotiate" that deadline, facing strong opposition primarily from D66, and to a lesser extent, the VVD. However, this renegotiation never came to fruition.

Christianne van der Wal, the minister responsible for nitrogen policy, said before the summer that she wanted to have 2030 as the deadline in the bill, but several things needed to happen first. Her colleague Piet Adema (Agriculture) had to present his own agriculture plans after the agriculture agreement collapsed. He planned to do this in September. Parallel to his agriculture plans, further negotiations would take place within the cabinet regarding the date, as desired by the CDA.

Given that all this did not proceed due to the fall of the Cabinet in July, outgoing nitrogen minister Van der Wal has decided to not include the 2030 deadline in the bill, the sources told the newspaper. Her party, the VVD, seems to have rejected the 2030 deadline in their recent election program. Moreover, D66, which is currently losing popularity in the polls, no longer appears keen on enforcing the 2030 deadline.

Van der Wal could potentially still submit her legislation if the Tweede Kamer requests it, but this seems unlikely, the newspaper reported.