News Nitrogen mood
Remkes II discussed, peat fire rages on
It is an incorrect comparison from an environmental point of view, but the nitrogen file has all the characteristics of a peat fire. Sometimes the flames spread, such as at the end of last week with the enforcement of PAS detectors in Overijssel. Farmers take to the streets, politicians and other involved players go a step faster and the fire goes underground again, but is not extinguished.
In Overijssel, livestock farmers threatened to significantly reduce their farm size on pain of a large penalty, (usually) because they have too few emission rights, but through no fault of their own. The ball is in the court's court and it is failing. That does not seem to really change for the time being, but because of all the commotion, a solution may be sought in Overijssel. To this end, consultations were held with Minister Van der Wal, among others.
Little willingness or creativity Van der Wal
So far she has shown little willingness to act somewhat in the spirit of Remkes or to show her own benevolent creativity, even though the cabinet has 'embraced' Rutte's latest advice (What is possible).
And then nothing has been done about the situation in North Brabant, where livestock farmers are also caught between the national and provincial governments. It is more difficult there because of the mandatory low-emission stables.
Attempts have also been made in the House of Representatives to get Minister Van der Wal moving. A large majority there consented to motions to stop throwing all kinds of maps and zoning around in the discussion about protecting vulnerable nature from now on and to stop using data that is now considerably outdated when calculating livestock emissions. The chamber also wants to prevent a farm hunt by governments and project developers and therefore put a shot at between the emissions of NH3 and NOx. The minister can sleep on it one more night and is not obliged to comply with motions.
VVD party and faction
In her own VVD, such a shot, and even more so the tampering with the nitrogen agreements in the coalition agreement, is still sensitive. A majority in the party announced a few months ago that they disagree with the course of Rutte and Van der Wal. The party also wants to serve construction and large businesses. The fierce reaction of Member of Parliament Thom van Campen to an alleged slippage of Minister Adema in Friesland (Adema would not have declared the nitrogen targets sacred) speaks volumes in that regard. After Adema had explained his words in more detail, Van Campen apologized for his reaction, but it is clear that the VVD fraction is often almost as tight as D66 in the nitrogen dossier.
All in all it was another week with a lot of discussion, but again also with few solutions or new perspectives, apart from a Wageningen report on the opportunities of innovation. But that also needs to be addressed. The spreading fire in Overijssel has been contained for the time being. Waiting for what comes next. If Minister Van der Wal does not want to move, the space may have to come from her colleague Adema. He may be able to offer new openings with his 'Landbouwbrief'.
Klaas van der Horst
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