Sustainaweekly - Dutch Climate policy unchanged on Budget Day
The Cabinet sticks to climate policy as communicated in the coalition agreement. It does step up the 2050 target from a 95% emissions reduction to zero net emissions. The EUR 35 billion Climate Fund has not yet come into effect. But the Cabinet already wants to release a large part of the committed funds for the 2023 budget. This amounts to EUR 2.1 billion.
Dutch Climate Policy
On Budget Day (20th September), the Cabinet published the 2023 budget and all related documents. This included attention to climate policy. In addition to the current energy crisis, the Cabinet has climate as its top priority. With this it continues on the path communicated in the coalition agreement of last year. The emission reduction targets for 2030 (60% emissions reduction) and 2040 (80% emissions reduction) are as in the coalition agreement. However, it does make the 2050 target more ambitious, moving from a 95 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to net zero emissions.
The Climate Fund
The Climate Fund is not currently established by law. The fund will be established through an establishment bill. The relevant bill is expected to be submitted to parliament in the fall of 2022. This bill is not expected to become law until after the State Budget for 2023 has already been enacted. Only then will the Climate Fund formally enter into force. To ensure that the climate goals are not delayed, the first urgent expenditures will however still be made from the Climate Fund.
In the Climate Fund, the Cabinet has set aside EUR 35 billion through 2030. A total of EUR 5.4 billion of the Climate Fund has now been committed. This leaves EUR 29.6 billion (see table below).
Since the Climate Fund cannot spend itself, but only distribute funds, the funds have been transferred to (other) departmental budgets.
In order to meet the targets, the government will release the funds through the 2023 budget for a large number of measures with committed amounts in the table above. So it will not wait for the establishment law. The amount to be released is a total of EUR 2.1 billion. This includes the following measures for the period from 2022 to 2027:
The production and use of renewable hydrogen: a total EUR 1.6 billion (IPCEI hydrogen wave 2: EUR 785 million, IPCEI hydrogen wave 3: EUR 600 million and IPCEI hydrogen wave 4: EUR 199 million) . IPCEI stands for Important Project of Common European Interest Hydrogen
Making industry more sustainable: EUR 51 million. This is made up of 22m for the National Investment Scheme Climate Measures Industry (NIKI) EUR 29mm for the Accelerated Climate Investments Industry (VEKI)
New subsidy scheme for heat networks of EUR 200 million
Accelerated local approach National Insulation Program amounting to EUR 62.5 million
Investment subsidy Sustainable Energy and Energy Tax (ISDE) of EUR 100 million
Nuclear energy totalling EUR 20 million
Program for Energy Generation on Government Real Estate of EUR 82.5 million
In addition, the government has also made EUR 52 million multi-year available for targeted investments in public charging infrastructure. This amount is not shown in the table above because these funds will be transferred to the budget of Infrastructure and Water Management in the Spring Budget of 2023.
The cabinet communicated that about EUR 4 billion has been allocated to stimulate offshore energy generation and hydrogen and, in addition, 529 million for the implementation costs of climate policy. This 4 billion consists of the EUR 2.1 billion of measure measures the cabinet does not want to wait with, the 2022-2027 Wind at Sea item of EUR 1.7 billion and the EUR 160 million coverage climate fund energy saving measures.
This article is part of the Sustainaweekly 26 September 2022