The National Climate Agreement builds on the Energy Accord, but rather than focusing solely on energy policy, it addresses all greenhouse gas emissions. In 2023 the emission reduction targets of the National Climate Agreement were further hardened through the Coalition Agreement 2021-2025. In order to achieve these targets, additional measures were introduced in “Sharp targets, sharp choices”, a report one national climate policy for 2030 and 2050, which included the following commitments:
The 2019 agreement set out a strategy to achieve 49% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, and 95% by 2050. The new and hardened target of the National Climate Agreement contains a net zero pledge. The goal is to be climate-neutral by 2050 at the latest, and achieve a 55% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. In order to achieve the ambition for 2030 the target for policy is focused on reducing CO2 emissions by 60% in 2030. To meet this end, the government also presented an additional climate package on the 26th of April, 2023. This includes a €35 billion climate and transition fund for the next 10 years.
Overall, the National Climate Agreement came as a response to the Urgenda case and in parallel to the Climate Act. It details agreements made with the following sectors: electricity, industry, built environment, traffic and transport, and agriculture. The Agreement also introduces a carbon tax, applicable to industry and levied against emissions that exceed the EU ETS Benchmarks (after the deduction of a predefined reduction path). The tax applies to all installations in the EU ETS, as well as waste incinerators and large emitters of non-CO2 GhGs, such as N2). The CO2 tax levy will start at €30/t CO2 in 2021 and will increase each year by €10.56, up to a rate of €125/t CO2 in 2030. The annual additional costs associated with the Climate Agreement are estimated to be less than 0.5% of GDP in 2030.
The National Climate Agreement contains commitments with five sectors on the measures they will take over the next 10 years and beyond to meet climate targets. The following targets are decided upon per sector:
- Electricity: in 2030 the Netherlands want 70% of all electricity to come from wind turbines on sea and land, and solar panels on roofs and solar parks. By 2050 the Netherlands wants to be completely free from fossil fuels, like coal and gas
- Industry: by 2050 the industry is circular, and “emits virtually no more greenhouse gases”
- Mobility: by 2050 Dutch traffic and all transport will no longer emit harmful exhaust gases and CO2
- The built environment: by 2050, 7 million homes and 1 million buildings need to be off natural gas
- Agriculture and land-use: by 2050, agriculture and land-use will be climate neutral
