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What is the Dutch nitrogen crisis?

If it’s to meet its climate targets, the Netherlands will be forced to choose between agriculture or building new homes and infrastructure unless the farming sector cuts nitrogen-based emissions.

Last year, it was revealed that the agriculture industry is responsible for about aΒ quarterΒ of our total greenhouse gas emissions, the main contributor being livestock and fisheries.

Yet although the drastic environmental impact of meat and dairy production has been at theΒ forefrontΒ of the climate conversation for some time now, little has been done to address it – at least from a top down level.

Most often, the solutions posed are targeted towards the individual, encouraging consumers to β€˜give Veganuary a go’ or experiment with Meat Free Mondays, for example.

Rarely do we see those in charge of keeping the wheels turning held accountable, let alone forced into changing their ways for the benefit of our planet.

Government officials in the Netherlands have no choice but to adapt, however.

This is due to the Dutch nitrogen crisis, whereby experts are warning that if the country is to meet its climate targets, it will have to decide between agriculture or building new homes and infrastructure, unless the farming sector cuts nitrogen-based emissions.

But why nitrogen? Often, information regarding the industry’s contribution to global warming focuses on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted during the process of getting a single piece of steak to the dinner table.

Yet scientists and leaders have recently begun pointing to nitrogen as the β€˜lowest hanging fruit’ in the fight to prevent further temperature increases, citing the fact that it’s heavily concentrated on livestock farms, where animal manure is stored and treated in great quantities.

Considering that the Netherlands is the world’s second-largest exporter of agricultural products, that’s a whole lotta biodiversity-destroying nitrogen being pumped into the atmosphere – at a level that’s currently breaking European safety regulations, to be precise.

Raising concerns that such emissions are a big deal in this small, densely populated country and becoming the dominant political issue during the last few years, the crisis has polarised social opinion, spurring the rise of a new rural populist movement and mobilising environmentalists who are worried about the state of wild habitats.

On the back of this, a series of supreme court rulings have brought the Netherlands to a standstill and desperately needed housebuilding has been put on hold for the time being, as builders require nitrogen permits from a limited supply to cover construction emissions.

β€˜Why are we so strict? Because we are already exceeding the critical loads,’ says Wim de Vries, professor of environmental systems analysis at Wageningen University.

β€˜It’s a disturbance of the whole nutrient balance.’

In order to fulfil its promise to halve nitrogen-based emissions by 2030, the government has pledged to cut the energy and industrial sectors by 38 per cent and transport by 25 per cent by the end of the decade.

Because agriculture accounts for 46 per cent of the country’s output of the potent greenhouse gas, government advisers have recommended a 41 per cent cut, though nothing has been set in stone thus far.

As a result, Christianne van der Wal of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy is trying to convince farmers to reduce livestock herds or leave the industry to cut emissions, but talks are at an impasse and angry farmers worried about their livelihoods have been staging multiple protests.

β€˜There will first have to be nitrogen cuts before there is room for new development such as new houses and sustainable energy investments. It is our economic lockdown,’ she said.

β€˜My message is not the message farmers want to hear. They feel we only target them but we are targeting other sectors too.’

Essentially, the government is offering to buy farmers out or pay those that operate near protected landscapes to move elsewhere.

It has also suggested some could buy up land vacated by neighbouring farmers and so spread their livestock more thinly over a wider area.

Some of the funding will come from a €24.3bn government pot to improve nature, which is awaiting state-aid approval from Brussels before it can be disbursed.

With this in mind, only time will tell how the updated plan is received, but if the crisis isn’t solved swiftly and appropriately, in a way that’s aligned with rules and legislation, experts warn that the economy will become stuck and that farmers will not have the prospect of a sustainable future.

β€˜We are the first country to reach the limit of what nature can tolerate,’ van der Wal said.

β€˜We have to find a new balance with nature. For too long we have had more development than our nature can bear.’

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