Nitrogen Approach Program News Today

The nitrogen crisis wasn’t the biggest obstacle to housing construction in the Netherlands in recent years, but it did have a clear effect. Without the restrictive nitrogen rules, about 23,000 more homes would have been built since mid-2019 than were actually constructed, Trouw reports based on new research by real estate consultancy Colliers.

Hundreds, maybe thousands more farmers in the Netherlands are working without a permit to emit nitrogen, according to NRC. These are farmers who were already operating when the European nitrogen laws changed in 2009 and never applied for the required nature permits. The agriculture sector and politics refer to these farmers as “interims,” according to the newspaper.

The Netherlands must continue to speed up its policy approach to nitrogen emissions issues, cautioned the European Commission in a letter to Nature and Nitrogen Minister Christianne van der Wal. The existence of the letter was confirmed by unnamed sources in the national government, following first reports by RTL Nieuws. Minister of Agriculture Piet Adema said he was shocked that the European Commission wants the deterioration of vulnerable nature sites due to nitrogen to stop by 2030.

The Netherlands must continue to speed up its policy approach to nitrogen emissions issues, cautioned the European Commission in a letter to Nature and Nitrogen Minister Christianne van der Wal. The existence of the letter was confirmed by unnamed sources in the national government, following first reports by RTL Nieuws. Minister of Agriculture Piet Adema said he was shocked that the European Commission wants the deterioration of vulnerable nature sites due to nitrogen to stop by 2030.