The National Climate Agreement: a society's commitment to the 49% target

De onderhandelingen voor het Klimaatakkoord begonnen in het voorjaar van 2018. Na ruim een jaar onderhandelen lag in de zomer van 2019 een pakket met afspraken op tafel.

the National Climate Agremeent

At 239 pages, the National Climate Agreement is a voluminous document. It contains more than 600 commitments to help achieve the 49% target. Below is a summary of the commitments for each sector.

To understand the commitments from the National Climate Agreement, it's relevant to know the various units being used.

Technical Talk with the Green Wolverine:

megatons, petajoules and gigawatt hours

Sooo, I do have some feedback for you: too many units are being used. Megatons, petajoules, gigawatt hours: can't you just use one?

I try to make it as simple as possible for you, but you can't compare apples to pears. Or maybe you can #teampears, it's only hard to make an apple pie with pears. If you do have a recipe for that, I'd love to hear it.

I think this is a pretty bad metaphor actually.

Fair enough. What I was trying to say is that you need different quantities for the variety of subjects covered.

Which quantities do you need in this deep dive?

There are three: (1) mass for emissions; (2) power for how much energy is delivered per time unit; and (3) energy for the total energy delivered.

Mass for emissions? Is CO₂ that heavy?

No, CO₂ weighs 1.964 grams per liter. It's a gas and therefore it has mass. Since there are a lot of emissions, we need a fairly large unit: megatons. This is 1 million million grams, or 1 billion kilograms, or 1 million tons.

I think I understand this. But I always find power and energy way too confusing, so shall we skip those?

No, on the contrary, it's important to know the difference! Let's take a magnificent wind turbine as an example.

One of the largest wind turbines in the world, the Haliade-X has a capacity of 12 megawatts. 1 watt is the same as one joule (energy) per second (time). So the Haliade-X can generate 12 megajoules of energy per second.

As it's not windy every day, and because of other technical reasons, the wind turbine cannot always deliver all the potential energy. Even so, the Haliade-X delivers about 67 gigawatt hours of energy per year, which is enough for the energy needs of 16,000 households.

Eerst drukte je energie uit in joule en hierna in gigawattuur. Wat is het verschil?

The units are different, but both are about energy. We have come up with different units for energy: watt-hours (often used for electrical energy) joules (for all kinds of energy) and calories (often used with food). Hugely convenient for when you focus on one subject, bit confusing for normal mortals.

But if energy is always the same, how do I charge my phone with the (half-empty) bag of chips lying next to me?

De batterijcapaciteit van een iPhone 14 is 12.68Wh. Een 200 grams Lay’s Chips natural bevat 508 kcal. Als we het uitdrukken in joules, heeft de iPhone 45648 joules aan energie en een zak chips 2125472 joules. Klinkt als een mogelijkheid om de energie van de (overgebleven) chips over te zetten naar je telefoon, alleen missen we wel een werkend snoertje om de energie te transporteren. Wordt dus lastig, vrees ik voor je.

Too bad, it was worth a try.

Definitely! Hopefully you still have enough energy left to continue reading in this chapter.

electricity

Target

Reduce 20.2 megatons of greenhouse gasses

Solution

Generate renewable electricity, offshore and onshore

Goals

Offshore wind generates 49 terawatt hours of electricity by 2030

Onshore renewable electricity produces 35 terawatt hours by 2030

Other commitments

Generation of onshore renewable electricity is done in a technology-neutral manner and with a regional approach (via regional energy strategies)

The administration's intention to ban the use of coal for electricity generation is not part of the Electricity sector table's contribution, but does count toward the 20.2 megaton target.

Cost reduction, scaling up, faster construction, spatial planning and integration into the energy system are essential conditions for the success of large-scale renewable electricity production

electricity

built environment

Target

Reduce 3.4 megatonnes of greenhouse gasses

Solution

Reduce or eliminate natural gas consumption in homes and service industry

Building heat networks in areas with dense development, many high-rise buildings and many pre-1995 homes

Applying all-electric heat solutions in new homes and in spacious neighborhoods

Using the natural gas grid for green gas or hydrogen

Insulating buildings and use a hybrid gas boiler as an interim solution

Goals

Make 1.5 million existing homes more sustainable by 2030

Achieve 1 megaton reduction in the service industry

No more natural gas connections for newly built homes

Produce 40 petajoules of sustainable heat by 2030

Other commitments

The best approach will be considered for each neighborhood, whereby the timeline for making neighborhoods more sustainable will be known no later than 2021

Cost neutrality per home is a basic principle

Attention for standardization of sustainable solutions to enable faster upscaling

There will be a guideline with objective information about the available sustainable options.

industry

Target

Reduce 14.3 megatons of greenhouse gasses

Solution

Six options: (1) process efficiency, (2) energy conservation, (3) CO₂ storage (CCS), (4) electrification, (5) use of blue and green hydrogen, and (6) accelerate circularity.

Reduce CO₂ tax for industry encourages emissions reduction

Other commitments

Regional approach with industrial clusters (Rijnmond/Moerdijk, North Sea Canal Area, North Netherlands, Chemelot and Zeeland) where most of the 300 industrial companies are active.

The sieve, ceiling and horizon is used for CCS.

sieve

CCS may only be subsidized in places where there are currently no proven cost-effective alternatives

ceiling

A maximum of 7.2 megatons of CCS will be subsidized

horizon

After 2035, no subsidy (SDE+) will be given for CCS applications, with an exception for CCS projects that realize negative emissions

industry

mobility

Target

Reduce 7.3 megatons of greenhouse gasses

Solution

Four pillars: (1) sustainable energy carriers, (2) electric transport, (3) sustainable logistics and (4) sustainable passenger mobility

Goals

sustainable energy carriers

duurzame

energie

dragers

Availability of 27 petajoules of renewable fuels by 2030

There are 300,000 fuel cell vehicles by 2030

All public transport buses are emission-free by 2030

50% of taxis are emission-free by 2025

Goals

electric transport

elektrisch

vervoer

New passenger car sales are 100% emission-free by 2030

There are 1.8 million charging points in 2030

Goals

sustainable logistics

duurzame

logistiek

There will be zero-emission public transport buses, construction vehicles and mobile equipment

There will be zero-emission zones in the city

Focus on chain optimization to reduce emissions

Goals

sustainable personal mobility

duurzame

personen

mobility

8 billion fewer business kilometers in 2030

Building better bicycle highways

Stimulating more sustainable forms of business mobility

landbouw & landgebruik

Target

Reducing 3.5 megatons of greenhouse gasses

Solution

Commitments within five themes: (1) livestock farming, (2) peatlands, (3) agricultural soils and outdoor cultivation, (4) trees, forest and nature, and (5) greenhouse horticulture.

Goals

livestock farming

Aiming for a climate-responsible dairy sector and energy-neutral dairy farming by 2030 by:

Fewer methane emissions from manure

Soil and energy measures

Fewer imports of protein-rich concentrated feed

Before 2030, the pig farming sector is taking the following measures:

Restructuring pig farms

Low emission stall systems

Reduce and close nutrient cycles in animal feed

Sustainable use of pig manure

Energy generation, energy conservation and more green spaces

Goals

peatland area

veenweide

gebied

Converting farmland into nature

wet cultivation

Converting farmland into nature

Goals

agricultural soils

landbouw bodems

Increase organic matter content

Reduce nitrous oxide in agricultural soils

Goals

forests, trees and nature

Prevent deforestation

Increase carbon sequestration in existing natural areas

Expand forest and landscape

Strengthen carbon sequestration in the chain by using materials released from maintenance of green spaces

Goals

greenhouse horticulture

Make more use of residual heat

Encourage energy efficient elements in greenhouses

Utilize geothermal heat

Modernize approximately 300 hectares of greenhouses per year

landbouw & landgebruik

In the National Climate Agreement or Heard Somewhere Else?

The National Climate Agreement contains more than 600 commitments. These commitments are very different, both in terms of subject matter and how concrete they are.

In the quiz, you will come across several climate commitments. However, not all of them come from the National Climate Agreement. Do you know which ones are in the agreement?

[ld_quiz quiz_id="13514"]

from National Climate Agreement to Climate Plan

The National Climate Agreement was a societal agreement containing commitments by companies, governments and civil society organizations. The agreement gave substance to the Rutte-III government's task to reduce emissions by 49% in 2030.

In accordance with the Climate Act, the government had to present a Climate Plan in which the main elements for climate policy for the next ten years were described. In April 2020, this plan was presented.

The Climate Plan is largely based on the commitments in the National Climate Agreement, but also includes policies that (1) already existed; (2) came from the coalition agreement and (3) followed from European obligations.

See below what the main pillars (by sector) are in the Climate Plan:

Electricity

Commitment to 70% renewable electricity generation by 2030.
- Generation of 49 terawatt hours of offshore wind energy
- Generation of 35 terawatt hours of (large-scale) onshore renewable energy (wind and solar)
- Generation of 10 terawatt hours of small-scale renewable electricity, from e.g. private solar panels
- Guarantee security of energy supply
- Invest sufficiently in electricity infrastructure
Instruments
- Use of coal to produce electricity will be banned from 2030 onwards
- There will be a national and gradually increasing minimum CO₂ price for electricity in addition to the EU ETS
- The SDE++ subsidy will remain available for renewable electricity projects through 2025

Built environment

Taxes on natural gas increase, those on electricity decrease.
New financing options emerge, including building-specific financing and a heat fund with pre-financing for everyone
Nemen van maatregelen om huurwoningen van corporaties en particuliere woningeigenaren versneld te verduurzamen
Make the service industry more sustainable
Realize sufficient sustainable heat supplies

Industry

Amend Environmental Management ('Wet Milieubeheer') to allow for both energy conservation and renewable energy generation measures
There will be a national CO₂ tax to ensure the 14.3 megaton emission reduction by 2030
There will be subsidies for CO₂ reducing measures

Agriculture & Land use

Reduce emissions in livestock production.
Reduce emissions and CO₂ storage through smart land use
Make greenhouse horticulture more sustainable
Focus on food consumption and food waste

Mobility

Stimulate the use of sustainable energy carriers
Stimulate electric (passenger) transport to achieve 100% emission-free new passenger car sales in 2030
Reduce 8 billion business (car) kilometers by 2030
Make logistics more sustainable
National policies for shipping and aviation

a new ambition emerges

We now know the origins of the 49% target and what commitments were agreed upon to achieve it. However, after the National Climate Agreement, many new developments have taken place. One important change is a higher ambition: from 49% to 55% emission reduction. Find out in the next chapter how this new goal came about.

Already curious whether we are on track to achieve 49% emission reduction? Skip straight to chapter 5!