Background Nitrogen mood
Mole still runs aground within sight of the finish
Anyone who thought last week that the 1-mole limit was finally settled was mistaken. They celebrated too soon. The mole has stopped short of the finish line. The remainder of the outgoing Schoof cabinet is arguing internally about it. For the BBB, it's a crown jewel, but the VVD is obstructing it.
Journalists in The Hague have heard about this through their channels, and those close to the cabinet confirm that there's another glitch. And if you're still unsure, just listen to VVD luminary Arno Visser.
Bouwend Nederland, through its aforementioned chair, also expressed serious doubts about the sustainability of the new lower limit. Like a group of members of the House of Representatives, she wants a trial run first, but how can such a thing be arranged beforehand? Intuitively, you might think that builders would also be delighted with a more flexible nitrogen barrier, but no.
Rumors are that the VVD coalition partner BBB doesn't want to see any success with rural voters with the elections looming. Could that be the case?
Aerius module
And about the nitrogen barrier for construction. Despite some difficulties, many construction projects have continued in recent years. For many non-agricultural projects, the Aerius module often seems to work more smoothly than for agricultural ones. For example, because related transport movements and emissions are no longer counted once the border with a public road is crossed, or because other scoring points are slightly more relaxed. It happens.
Focus
Even the Dutch Federation of Agriculture and Horticulture (LTO-Nederland) seems to be struggling to maintain focus on separating the permitting process. It's a difficult task. The largest farmers' advocacy group is apparently too eager to connect with the perspectives of politicians and government officials who matter. Therefore, we need to discuss guaranteed emission reductions and target management, but unfortunately, the precise meaning often gets lost in the cloud of fine words, or politicians pull you into their narrative instead of the other way around.
Council of State in jail?
Moreover, the organization seems to feel obligated to justify the purchase of an expensive report on nitrogen policy. The renowned firm Houthoff wrote that, for a considerable sum. Unfortunately, in practice, it has limited added value. The fact that Houthoff's experts didn't deign to mention agriculture more than once is forgivable.
More troubling is that the advice won't solve anything in the short term. LTO seems to conclude that the Council of State's ruling of December 18th of last year should be reversed, but even if that were successful, it would be a whole generation of farmers ahead, while action is now needed.
Environmental militias and old permits
Especially since the addresses and business details of all farms in the Netherlands are now publicly available. The citizen militias of MOB and their allies simply have to sort them by permit status and then take them to court. And to help them, environmental services are already ramping up in various locations across the country with new and stricter enforcement orders. It's an easy score. Due to a series of consecutive rulings, particularly by the Council of State, the permit status of many agricultural businesses has been pushed back further and further. Which almost automatically means that far fewer activities are still legal.
1 mole too heavy
For agricultural advocates, time is of the essence, and they must focus on targets that must be met immediately. This also means no so-called "accountable targets," if only because they are interpreted differently in Europe than in the Netherlands, thus causing confusion. Unfortunately, raising the arithmetic lower limit from 0,005 mol to 1 mol appears to be a target that both easily distracts everyone and apparently exceeds everyone's political and administrative resources in the Netherlands.
Klaas van der Horst
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