July 2007
No Need For Dutch Courage Over Netherlands's Environmental Policy
The Netherlands is famed for its progressive and forward thinking attitude towards a whole host of issues, ranging from the international rule of law to social and economic policy. So it should be no surprise that the Dutch are now striding to the forefront of environmental protection.
Environment minister Jaqueline Cramer presented the government’s proposals to the Dutch parliament earlier this month and she proceeded to outline a 4 year plan for change.
Running from 2007 to 2011, with a long-term goal to unilaterally cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020, the plan is 10% more ambitious than EU plans and on a par with Swedish and British targets.
Taking a broadly similar approach to its more committed European neighbours, the idea of a "sustainability accord" was put forward, whereby government and business would work together in developing ways to tackle emissions and improve environmentally friendly technology. The process provides an umbrella for a variety of industries, creating a stakeholder group capable of and interested in making a real change to emissions, rather than industry being forced to play catch-up to legislation. That is not to say that targets will be diluted and manipulated by business, rather that they will have a greater input into the environmental arena.
Plans include the normalised proposals of increased renewable energy sources, which in this case would be a doubling of windmill power output as well as further energy efficiency measures in buildings. Indeed, all new buildings are supposed to be carbon neutral by 2012.
Further to this, and uniquely Dutch in perspective is a holistic approach to improve efficiency in the management of the water system and investigate new technologies to do this.
The most cutting edge technological solution however, is that of two proposed large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) power plants. This refers to the capture of CO2 emissions from industry, followed by storage, thereby preventing the CO2 entering the atmosphere. This is something that is recognised by Dutch premier, Jan Peter Balkende, as being integral to green development in Holland because "carbon dioxide storage is a vital technology for the transition to a sustainable energy supply." Various methods may be used for this, but crucially, for the system to prove useful, the storage of the gas must be for several centuries past the end of the fossil fuel era.
The use of this technology on power plants is perhaps the most effective in capturing CO2, though there is a way to go before the technology becomes commonplace, as the integration and scale-up of CCS in such a project is a new step.
Disposal of the CO2 may even provide benefits to the energy industry, as pumping CO2 back into oil fields helps firms in the process of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), extending the life of oil fields. At present, estimated costs of reducing emissions by CCS vary from £30 to £90 per tonne, but with EOR the price could be as little as £6-£12 per tonne. Greater benefits of pursuing this technology have also been recognised by the authorities as being twofold. Primarily, the struggle to protect the environment is strengthened, and more than this, the technology presents a perfect cash cow for exporters. With growing pressure being placed upon developing nations to grow in a green way, China and India are sure to be prime markets for CCS.
And as to whether the Dutch, British or Americans lead the field in developing CCS technology, it appears that we are all winners.
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