Cabinet sets out €250 million package to reduce nitrogen emissions by 50% by 2035

Under the government’s nitrogen strategy, emissions from industry and transport are expected to be cut by 50 percent by 2035 compared with 2019 levels. While both sectors have already achieved significant reductions in recent years, further progress is still required. To support this, the Cabinet is setting aside a one-off €250 million package.

Half of the €250 million package, €125 million, will be used to cut emissions from shipping, construction machinery, and road transport. According to Infrastructure Minister Vincent Karremans, the biggest gains are expected from the shift to electric vehicles and electric shipping.

Fuel used in inland shipping is exempt from excise duty, but electricity is taxed, according to Karremans. “We now have money to compensate for that, so it becomes more attractive for inland shipping to electrify,” he said. He also plans to provide subsidies to convert ships and wants to expand charging infrastructure around nature areas.

According to Karremans, lowering the speed limit further is not being considered, as it would have too little impact. He described such a measure as “purely symbolic.”

The remaining €125 million will go to industry, including through procurement schemes aimed at reducing emissions from companies located near nature areas. “These zones include several dozen industrial companies,” the minister said.

The Cabinet is mainly building on existing frameworks, including the EU emissions trading system for CO₂. “This also leads to a reduction in nitrogen,” it said.

The agriculture sector is also required to cut ammonia emissions by 23 to 25 percent by 2030, according to a parliamentary letter on the nitrogen policy. If that target is not achieved, the government will introduce stricter measures. In areas surrounding nature reserves, emissions will need to be reduced even further.

The government plans to determine nitrogen reduction targets on a regional basis, taking into account the condition of nature areas and nearby economic activity. Around 85 nitrogen-sensitive sites, stricter rules will apply within a 500-metre buffer zone, where an extra 20 percent emissions cut is required.

A total of 15 one-kilometre buffer zones will be established around vulnerable nature areas, according to the government. Six of these zones are located in Noord-Brabant, three in Drenthe, and two each in Overijssel and Limburg.

In Noord-Brabant, the buffer zones include areas in De Peel and near the Loonse en Drunense Duinen. In Drenthe, broader zones will be introduced around the Dwingelderveld, Drents-Friese Wold, and Drentsche Aa nature areas. Most other protected sites will be subject to 500-metre buffer zones, while the Veluwe will follow a tailored plan developed by the province of Gelderland.

The minister emphasises that all measures together are necessary to unlock the Netherlands from the nitrogen deadlock. “The government assumes that these emission targets for 2035 will be achieved with this package,” the parliamentary letter states.

Should the 2030 interim target for agriculture not be achieved, the government says stricter regulations will follow. Progress in the sector will be reviewed in 2027 and 2028 to determine whether it is moving in the right direction.

The Cabinet aims to introduce legislation in October that would remove the contested nitrogen standard for ecological damage from the legal framework. Instead, the targets would be defined as caps on emissions per company. This shift would move the focus away from where nitrogen settles in nature and towards the total amount firms release into the air.

The government says that, by the end of next year, limited nitrogen emissions from projects should once again be allowed without immediately requiring a permit. Currently, the emissions threshold is set so low that almost every project needs a permit, effectively blocking even low-impact developments and events.

The Cabinet aims to use the broader nitrogen package to restore room in the system for small-scale emissions. This would involve raising the “calculation-based lower threshold” that determines when a permit is required, which is currently set so low that permits are needed almost everywhere.

As a result, PAS-reporting farmers, often smallholders who were previously only required to notify their emissions and who are now operating without permits through no fault of their own, could be given more legal certainty and operational space.

According to the Cabinet, increasing the calculation-based threshold would also create more room for construction, including housing and infrastructure projects. If it proves possible to raise the limit sooner than the end of next year, the government intends to do so.