Background Nitrogen Mood
Green flying counts differently than green farming
Those who fly are paid differently than those who burp. That became super clear again this week. While the cabinet is pulling out all the stops at the last minute, before the new Senate takes office, to bring agriculture into line in terms of the environment, aviation must apparently not become too environmentally friendly. In our weekly section Nitrogen Mood, we give an impression of the nitrogen crisis in our own way.
A proposal by Minister for Infrastructure and Water Management Mark Harbers to oblige airlines in the Netherlands to mix 14% green fuel was rejected by Frans Timmermans and his colleagues. 6% admixture is the maximum for the time being, otherwise competition in Europe will be disrupted, according to the European Commission.
Popular shower
It was a special and revealing moment. When it comes to the environment, Member States are almost always allowed to lead the European peloton. In any case, the Netherlands can set stricter air quality and other standards without hindrance than in the rest of Europe, but other considerations apply when it comes to aviation. While numerous other exceptions already apply to aviation, such as not including combustion emissions above 900 meters and excise duty exemptions. Cheap flights are also a popular option for the average voter. Even GroenLinks stays away from that, grumbles MOB leader Johan Vollenbroek. Farming, on the other hand, is not something everyone in our modern society has much to do with, or is often thought to be.
One-out, all-out
The government's alarm bells continue to ring for emissions from agriculture. This week, the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure, chaired by Jan Jaap de Graeff, issued another alarming message about Dutch water quality. The Netherlands could never meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Perhaps the former director of Natuurmonumenten is right about that too, because this guideline works according to the 'one out, all out' principle – if you fail on one point, you fail everything. It is an example of almost masochistic regulation, designed by technocrats with little sense of reason. This is also reflected in the regulations for zero tolerances and the Critical Deposition Value (KDW). Anyway, the signal from De Graeff and associates is mainly a reference to agriculture.
Advice Remkes reversed
Meanwhile, Minister for Nature and Nitrogen Christianne van der Wal is trying to ensure that agriculture does not become detached from the aforementioned KDW. Last year, nitrogen advisor Johan Remkes recommended looking for an alternative to this seemingly all-determining standard for the state of nature. Van der Wal set to work with Remkes' advice and asked four researchers to reason out how the KDW is irreplaceable after all. With that in mind, she convened a working group to think further with the 'new' point of view in hand. This week there was a first meeting of this working group, with various agricultural organizations and of course also environmental groups, but strangely enough this time without LTO. The story goes that the LTO chairman does not like to be in the same room as the Hague representative of MOB/Vereniging Leefmilieu.
New Environmental Act
Farmers' representatives first thought they could talk calmly about it, but were surprised by fairly elaborate plans to abolish the existing agricultural licensing system. This in favor of new regulations with emission ceilings per area. These regulations should be suspended from the new Environmental Act. It seems that the last word has not yet been spoken on this. If this plan were to become reality, the cabinet would immediately be rid of a number of headache files. Nitrogen emissions can be reduced even further and more easily. The problem of PAS detectors and companies with non-working, but recognized low-emission stables will then also resolve itself. After all, different preconditions apply from now on.
Bell and clapper at stable fiasco
Many media make of it the fiasco with the low-emission stables an innovation fiasco. That is a reaction of hearing the bell ring, but not knowing where the clapper hangs. Innovation can indeed solve something, if applied properly. An example is the Lely Sphere, another example is a different view of feed digestion and manure collection. The unpublished report from Wageningen is not about that.
Sector tables are also allowed to watch
Meanwhile, Minister Piet Adema and his host Chris Kalden are doing everything possible to get the remaining agricultural parties (LTO, NAJK, Biohuis) to sign a broad agreement with dozens of other non-agricultural parties. Everything is ready to sign on May 15. In preparation for this, Kalden thought it advisable to update the participants in the sector tables. They haven't been consulted much in the past, because it happened at the main table. Just before the intended drawing moment, they are even allowed to read the detailed agreements, writes an indulgent Kalden.
Hope LNV for 'reasonable' LTO
The question is whether this has a mood-enhancing effect. The Ministry of LNV hopes that the hesitant LTO, as a 'reasonable middle party' and even a group supported by LNV (as was reported last week in a WOO piece), can eventually be persuaded.
Most agricultural organizations would prefer to see the cabinet fall. Then the discussion about an Agricultural Agreement will also be over, at least an agreement as it is currently being approached. However, the government is happy to do nothing less than that. Electorally, the participants are in a bad way.
However, cracks are gradually beginning to appear even in the most fanatical bloc of the coalition. The young party member Tobias den Hollander from Alphen aan de Rijn wants to use the upcoming D66 party congress to get a more flexible nitrogen position adopted. He feels increasingly uncomfortable with the 'frozen principles' of people like Tjeerd de Groot. It's too fundamentalist for him. The exclusion of BBB, JA21 and PVV in advance by the provincial party leaders also does not sit well with many D66 members.
Klaas van der Horst
© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.
