On the 7th of October I wrote an article on the Dutch Climate law and how it relates to the to be expected Climate Accord (click here if you need a quick recap). The moment is finally here! The long anticipated Climate Accord has been presented by the minister of Economic- and Climate Affairs – super exciting news for Sustainable Development students like us!
Quick recap on Dutch politics
Just to refresh your memory, the Netherlands has set the ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals of 49% in 2030 in comparison with 1990. This has been pushed for ever since 2015 by both the Green Party (Groenlinks) and the Labour party (Partij van de Arbeid). Although neither of these parties is currently in the government coalition, it has been supported by a majority of parliament since 2018, when they presented their joint “Climate Law” (the topic of my previous blog). This law binds the government to work towards this 49% GHG reduction target – no matter the colour of the coalition (left leaning parties might want to subsidise windmills and tax higher incomes, whilst right leaning parties might want tax deductions for green producers for example) (NOS, 2018).
In order to reach this reduction goal, 5 “climate round-tables” have been established. Their role? – To include all of the relevant stakeholders in a certain sector when formulating policy advice. Think for example of heavy industry, trade-unions, employer-organisations, consumer protection institutions, civil society, and the government itself. On the 21st of December this draft agreement has been presented to the minister (Nu.nl, 2018).
Here it is!
Until the 13th of March the draft accord has been on the desk of the algemene rekenkamer (the formal institution that calculates financial implications of certain policies in the Netherlands). It concluded that with this accord the reduction targets would not be met, whilst the costs would be lower than expected (de Rooy & Waaijers, 2019). The burden of the costs would disproportionally affect lower-income households. In other words: the exact scenario that the left leaning parties were warning us for.
During the ongoing campaign for the provincial and senatorial elections, the climate accord has been the centre of the discussion. The left parties making the case for a CO2 tax for the industry, the centre-right government parties held the position that we all had to wait for the rekenkamer whilst calling the proposed CO2 tax dangerous, and the populist right denying the existence of man-made climate change altogether.
The turn
Now that the climate accord is finally here, and it turned out that it is not enough and the costs would fall on lower-income families, the Conservative-led government did something peculiar: it embraced the idea of the CO2 tax, it went from dangerous to a good idea in a matter of days. Although it did not specify the severity of the tax, this is a fundamental shift in the approach of the government – and took both friends and foes by surprise. As the government is seeing its slim majority in the senate evaporate in the polls, maybe they figured it would be better to bend than to break – and hold on to their ownership of the discussion. The still very strong polling populist parties: the Freedom Party (PVV) and the Forum for Democracy (FvD) have distanced themselves from the discussion saying the entire topic is uncalled for.
Time will tell how impactful the climate accord and the proposed taxes will be to reach the goals.
Bibliography
1. de Rooy, M., & Waaijers, C. (2019, 03 13). Het Klimaatakkoord is doorgerekend, dit kun je verwachten. Opgeroepen op 02 14, 2019, van nos.nl: https://nos.nl/artikel/2275727-het-klimaatakkoord-is-doorgerekend-dit-kun-je-verwachten.html
2. NOS. (2018, 06 27). Klimaatwet komt er, maar niet alle doelen afdwingbaar. NOS, pp. 1-3.
3. Nu.nl. (2018, 12 21). Kabinet presenteert klimaatplannen, nog geen definitief akkoord. Opgeroepen op 03 14, 2019, van Nu.nl: https://www.nu.nl/politiek/5645432/kabinet-presenteert-klimaatplannen-nog-geen-definitief-akkoord.html
