Of the 22 megatons of CO2 that we have to emit less annually in 2030, industry will have to account for the largest part: 5.2 megatons. Minister Micky Adriaansens of Economic Affairs has made agreements with companies about this. “What we have now is a reasonable and doable package.”
The goal is to emit 55 percent less CO2 in 2030 than in 1990. And preferably even 60 percent less. And we won’t get there if industry and business don’t step up their efforts. ‘All reports and calculations showed that we would not make it with the current measures,’ says Adriaansens. “So in recent weeks we have looked at how we could distribute the pain as fairly as possible. From my perspective, this is now a reasonable package for industry and companies that is feasible and feasible.’
It will be a combination of rules that apply to everyone and customization for the large companies that emit a lot of CO2. ‘We already had a list of twenty large companies that required customization and we are now looking at how we can expand that list,’ said the minister. ‘Companies have already approached us about this.’ The idea is to ask companies what their needs are, in exchange for an extra effort on their part.
Adriaansens admits that there are still obstacles to achieving the goals, including from the government itself. ‘We can ask a company to electrify and move away from gas, but then there must be sufficient network capacity. That’s not always the case now.’ According to the minister, the same applies to the production of green hydrogen. ‘We have to work on that in the near future.’
She has no fear that companies will leave the Netherlands because of these new measures. ‘We’re going to enable companies to adapt and we’re going to help them do that,’ she says. And that also applies to SMEs. We have also explicitly made resources available for this.’
