Netherlands

Other activities

Domestic Activities

Monitoring and Research: With Dutch government support, research institutes such as RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment), PBL (Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency) and KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute) will be able to continue monitoring SLCPs, analyzing and modelling policy measures and sharing data with international databases (and vice versa). Continuous measurement of air composition at ground level and by satellite, as well as climate modelling, play an important role in improving our understanding of the impact of policy and measures on air quality and the climate.
Air quality programme: The Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment and local authorities work together under the National Air Quality Cooperation Programme to improve air quality and, in particular, to keep local levels of black carbon and nitrous oxide below agreed threshold levels. The government also provides grants for technical adaptations to reduce vehicle emissions, such as particle filters, and other general measures. Local concentrations of black carbon and nitrous oxide are controlled through environmental zoning, traffic circulation plans and specific measures to cut other emissions from, for instance, livestock.

Non CO2-Greenhouse gas programme: The Emissions Reduction Programme for non-CO2 greenhouse gases, introduced in 1999, aims to curb methane emissions from agriculture and other sources such as landfills. It comprises research, demonstration projects and awareness programmes. Methane emissions from landfills have fallen to one third of their 1990 level, and by minimizing HFC by-product emissions from industry HFCs emissions have more than halved since 1990. 

NMVOC programme : Emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) have fallen by over 70% since 1990, thanks to national NMVOC programmes and agreements with the industry sector.

International Activities

At EU level, the Netherlands continues to promote and support cost-effective measures to reduce SLCP emissions through various EU legislative instruments, such as the National Emissions Ceilings Directive, the Air Quality Directive, the Regulation on certain fluorinated greenhouse gases and the Landfill Directive.

At international level outside the EU, the Netherlands has supported proposals on tackling black carbon in the framework of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (UNECE), addressing HFCs under the Montreal Protocol and addressing SLCPs in other UN forums, and will continue to strive for greater awareness and the development of mitigation strategies aimed at SLCPs in the appropriate international forums.

One of the main international SLCP initiatives in which the Netherlands is involved is a project promoting cleaner cooking stoves, resulting in lower emissions of black carbon and improving public health. Furthermore, the Netherlands contributes to projects promoting biomass and other renewable fuels as alternatives to fuels with higher SLCP emissions.

The Netherlands also participates in and contributes to the Partnership for Clean Vehicles and Fuels, the Global Agenda of Action in support of sustainable livestock sector development and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases. Finally, the Netherlands is considering developing specific international public-private partnership projects on cutting SLCPs, with a view to creating a snowball effect in regard and setting examples to new initiatives.