Policy advice

In about 40 years’ time, the Netherlands is able to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions with 80 per cent. This is the conclusion of an outlook written by ECN and the Environmental Assessment Agency by request of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment.

80% reduction in 2050 is needed to keep global warming below 2° C

Four-track policy

To realise the 80 per cent greenhouse gas emission reduction, the Netherlands needs to deploy a mix of four elements, starting today: energy saving, use of biomass as energy source, carbon capture and storage and clean electricity.

Priorities

Investments will need to made in the infrastructure. The analysis of ECN and PBL assists in establishing the priorities. The researchers claim that carbon capture and storage (CCS) will play an essential role in large industrial installations in the future. However, due to uncertainty about available storage capacity, coal-fired plants with CCS are not the best choice. There are better alternatives for clean electricity production, such as wind turbines or solar panels. Given that the amount of sustainable biomass is limited, it would be best to use this for freight transport or aviation. After all, passenger cars can just as easily be fuelled by electricity or hydrogen.

Drifting

An additional condition is that businesses and citizens know where they stand with regard to the government. Drifting policy will only put the brakes on innovation. Clearly, the Netherlands needs to collaborate with foreign countries, for example to import biomass, to capture carbon or to exchange sustainable electricity at times of shortage or excess.