The Dutch government is offering to buy out up to 3,000 “peak polluter” farms and major industrial polluters in an attempt to reduce ammonia and nitrogen oxide emissions that are illegal under EU law.
The nitrogen minister, Christianne van der Wal, said farmers would be offered more than 100% of the value of their farms to quit. For the first time, the government has said that forced buyouts will follow next year if the voluntary measures fail.
The group of 2,000 to 3,000 “peak polluters” – who are “mostly farmers”, an agriculture ministry spokesperson told the Guardian – will be offered a final set of choices: innovate to drastically reduce emissions, transition to a new kind of business, extend in ways that reduce their impact, relocate or “voluntarily stop”.
“For agricultural entrepreneurs, there will be a stopping scheme that will be as attractive as possible,” said Van der Wal in a series of parliamentary briefings. “For industrial peak polluters, we will get to work with a tailor-made approach and in tightening permits. After a year, we will see if this has achieved enough.”
Top industrial polluters include the businesses Tata Steel, Schiphol airport, refineries owned by Shell, BP and Esso, Dow chemicals and industrial companies such as Olam Cacoa and Cargill Cacoa, according to a report in the Telegraaf.
This is the first time the Dutch government has committed to a controversial mandatory buyout, or expropriation scheme, after it was first mentioned in a government research report outlining a 30% livestock reduction by 2030.
The latest announcement follows months of furious farmer protests, strong support for a new pro-farmers party, tense negotiations and a 58-page report called “What we can do” by the parliamentarian Johan Remkes.
It is seen as the last chance for an agricultural sector that emits an estimated 45% of greenhouse gases including ammonia and nitrogen-based runoffs from fertiliser.
The government’s hand has been forced by a court case in 2019 that said the PAS-melding, a kind of nitrogen futures trading scheme for farmers and industrial firms, was illegal because it could not be shown that the development would not damage EU-protected natural reserves known as Natura 2000 areas.
The court ruling led to a temporary building stop and 100km/h limit on roads, and made about 2,500 farms illegal at a stroke. A second Raad van State ruling this month said Dutch building projects needed nitrogen permission, putting government plans to build 900,000 desperately needed homes, windfarms and vital infrastructure at a standstill.
“[The reduction] is going to happen,” said Tjeerd de Groot, the D66 party agriculture spokesperson, who believes the country must reduce numbers of pigs and chickens by 50% and graze cows on grass. “I’m very hopeful now, because it’s not only voluntary any more. The whole economy has come to a stop because of this nitrogen question.
“This makes the political pressure, also in conservative, farmer-oriented societies, big. A relatively small part of the economy is blocking the rest of society, quite apart from the problems with biodiversity and degradation. Now it’s going to happen because we have our backs against the wall.”
Despite previous voluntary buyout schemes, only about 30 farmers stopped, according to the Volkskrant. New figures show that animal numbers have remained more or less the same in the last decade, with more than five times as many farmed animals in the Netherlands as its 17.8 million people.
Farmers are furious. The BoerBurgerBeweging (farmer-citizen movement) said it was “astonished that farmers and their families have to continue living in uncertainty” for another year.
Environmentalists are cautiously optimistic. Natasja Oerlemans, the head of the food team at WWF Netherlands, said while farmers were not to blame for following the system, reform had been needed for years.
“In all, we think that this could lead to a promising pathway for the much needed agri-transition in the Netherlands,” she said, but added it was still uncertain how the government would enforce the shutdowns if its voluntary approach failed.