close all coal plants

Put environmental goals down in the law, reduce gas extraction in Groningen to almost zero, implement a road tax based on kilometers and emissions, ban the sale of fossil-fueled vehicles after 2025 and close all the coal plants in the Netherlands, the environmental committees of six political parties write in a proposal for the climate portion of the governance agreement, the Volkskrant reports. 

The best way to deal with Dutch coal-fire power plants is not closing them, but making them more sustainable, according to a yet to be published study by Frontier Economics, which the Financieele Dagblad got its hands on.

According to the study, the CO2 emissions from the coal plants can be stored in old gas fields. And biomass can be burned in the plants. That solution is relatively cheap and saves a lot on greenhouse gasses. 

The Netherlands environmental assessment agency PBL is calling on the government to make some drastic choices in order to reach the environmental targets set in the climate agreement in made in Paris last year

Minister Henk Kamp of Economic Affairs has no intention to close the new coal plants in the Netherlands, despite concerns that the country will not meet its climate targets without doing so. According to him, the new plats "are the cleanest in Europe, we would be crazy to close them", he said in WNL on Sunday

The Dutch government will have to close at least one or two of the brand new coal plants if they hope to reach the target set in the so-called Urgenda ruling, according to an as yet confidential study by CE Delf that newspaper Trouw managed to get its hands on. 

Greenpeace wants energy from coal power plants to be banned from the Netherlands grid, director Sylvia Borren of Greenpeace Nederland said in an interview with Dutch newspaper Trouw. According to her, banning coal power will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help hit the targets in the Urgenda ruling and the climate agreement signed in Paris.

Closing all coal plants in the Netherlands by 2020 will cost 7 billion euros, according to a report commissioned by Minister Henk Kamp of Economic Affairs. The report also concludes that doing so will reduce CO2 emissions in the country by 31 percent and would not put energy supply in danger

Closing all power plants in the Netherlands will mean 1.9 billion euros in lost revenue for energy companies, but bring in 4.7 billion euros in extra wealth for the country, according to a study done by SEO Economic Research on behalf of environmental organization Natuur & Milieu

Greenpeace activists are protesting on the Maasvlakte against an Eon coal plant. Activists climbed the coal plant's 175 meter flute and are writing the names of people who singed a petition for coal-free energy by 2020 on it.

On Tuesday the Tweede Kamer, lower house of Dutch parliament, voted that Minister Henk Kamp of Economic Affairs should give no subsidies to coal-fired power plants for co-firing biomass until it is clear whether the plants must be closed due to pollution. Engergie-Nederland, the umbrella organization for energy companies in the country, thinks that the Energy Agreement will be jeopardized if coal plants do not co-fire biomass

Environmental experts believe that the Dutch population will soon start noticing effects of the agreements reached at the climate summit. These effects will include the closure of coal plants, more electric cars, even more solar panels and less dependence on fossil fuels.