It’s rather funny how this keeps happening
The Netherlands will fail to hit climate change targets, agencies say
The Netherlands is failing in its efforts to meet a string of important climate change targets, according to two government reports published on Friday.
In particular, a court order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 25% in 2020 when compared with 1990 will not be met, the official reports said. Last year, CO2 emissions were only down 15% and the figure is unlikely to be more than 23% in 2020, the researchers said.
In addition, the national climate agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 by 49% when compared with 1990 will not be met either, according to calculations by the environmental planning agency PBL. At most, the reduction will be between 43% and 48% assuming there are no setbacks, the PBL said.
Rarely do you read about nations actually hitting their targets, especially in terms of the Paris Climate Agreement. And these aren’t even the pledges (non-binding) made for the Paris Climate Agreement
Almost all of the 25 Parties analysed have climate policies in place that reduce emissions, but, for about two thirds of these Parties, reductions fall short of those targeted in their NDCs. For some Parties, it is uncertain whether their NDCs will lead to a reduction in emissions relative to the business-as-usual scenario.
The same happened with the Kyoto Protocol, with the vast majority of signatory nations failing to achieve their goals. No one really wants to give up their modern lifestyle, nor do they want to pay for it. Back to original article
However, the government’s macro-economic policy unit CPB does see a significant shift in the way the measures are being paid for.
The government had initially said that consumers would pick up most of the bill, but later had a rethink. Industry will now face an extra €1bn in costs, taking their share of the total bill to €2.6bn. The cost to households will be €1.8bn, the CPB said.
So, industry will either move, close shop, or bill consumers.
