The Netherlands promises to stop investing in foreign coal, oil and gas projects. The government has decided to join a group of countries that pledged during the climate summit in Glasgow to end government support for fossil projects outside their own borders within a year.
The outgoing cabinet previously said that it is up to the next cabinet to make a decision on this. This led to great outrage from environmental organizations and a number of political parties. The United States, the United Kingdom and the European Investment Bank, among others, previously joined the group of signatories.
The Netherlands has been in discussions with the business community and NGOs since last year about the “possible phasing out of support for fossil transactions” through guarantees, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance said earlier. In 2020, the Dutch government guaranteed more than 4,5 billion euros for (suppliers to) the oil and gas sector, according to documents from Atradius Dutch State Business, the export credit insurer of the Dutch state.
“The summit is now, and you should not postpone it,” says outgoing Prime Minister Rutte about the new decision.
The outgoing cabinet cannot yet say what it will mean in concrete terms. According to Rutte, this is an "important first step" and things now need to be further developed. It is not the case that the guarantee of 4 billion euros for these projects can simply go to sustainable energy, "but the direction is now clear and the step is meaningful," says Rutte.
'Only good choice'
MPs from GroenLinks, D66 and the Party for the Animals (PvdD), among others, are happy with the turnaround of the outgoing cabinet. “The only good choice,” says D66 MP Boucke. “We want and must be at the forefront. And invest in the future instead of fossil techniques and fuels of the last century.”
Ouwehand (PvdD) calls the new decision a “success of the climate march”. This weekend, tens of thousands of people joined a climate event in Amsterdam.
Greenpeace speaks of an “inevitable step by the Netherlands”. The environmental organization emphasizes that this is not yet an official decision of the climate summit. “The Netherlands must now really take action and, together with other countries, ensure that the final text of this climate conference actually states that we stop government support for the fossil industry.”
Source: OUR
