Skip to main content

Netherlands government pledges to cut road transport emissions 

The Dutch government is taking measures to reduce nitrogen emissions from road transport which include introducing fiscal incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles.
By Ben Spencer January 28, 2020 Read time: 1 min
Carola Schouten, Dutch minister of agriculture, nature and food quality (Photograph: Martijn Beekman/Central Government, Rijksoverheid.nl)

The government says the move will support plans in which all cars will need to be zero-emission by 2030. 

As part of the measures, parties within the National Climate Agreement are exploring ways of speeding up measures for sustainable transport. 

The move follows a letter sent from the minister of agriculture, nature and food quality, Carola Schouten, to the Dutch House of Representatives in response to the first report of the Advisory Committee on Nitrogen.

Schouten wrote: “We are confronted with a nitrogen problem that puts our air quality and our natural environment at risk and threatens to slow progress and prevent new projects.”

“There are no quick fixes, but it is clear that nitrogen emissions need to be reduced,” Schouten continued. “The government accepts the responsibility for taking the right measures.” 

Steps are already being taken to introduce zero emissions in Amsterdam. Last month, the city’s authorities set out plans to convert most municipality vehicles to zero-emission by 2025. 

 

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Transport in the round
    October 13, 2015
    The ITF’s Mary Crass tells Colin Sowman why future transport demands will require governments to overcome the silo effect of individual single-modal authorities. The only global multimodal transport policy organisation,” is how Mary Crass describes the International Transport Forum (ITF), which is housed at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). As head of policy and summit preparation at the ITF she says: “All other organisations are either regional or have a modal focus, we cove
  • UK to ‘ban petrol and diesel cars by 2035’
    February 6, 2020
    A  ban on purchasing new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars and vans in the UK will be brought forward from 2040 to 2035.
  • ASECAP examines tolling’s trials, tribulations and triumphs
    September 4, 2018
    If you want to get up to speed on the main issues facing the transport sector and tolling companies, ASECAP Study Days event in Ljubljana was a good place to start. Colin Sowman reports (Photographs: Louis David). Increasing populations, ever-higher technical and safety requirements, and electric and hybrid vehicles will provide both challenges and opportunities for tolling companies. The annual Study Days event organised by ASECAP (the European association for tolling companies) examined all of these aspec
  • Dutch strike public/private balance to introduce C-ITS services
    November 15, 2017
    Connected-ITS applications are due to appear on a nation-wide scale this summer, through the Netherlands’ Talking Traffic Partnership – if all goes to plan. Jon Masters reports. The Netherlands’ Talking Traffic Partnership (TTP) looks almost too good to be true: an artificial market set up and supported by national, regional and local government to accelerate deployment of Connected ITS (C-ITS) applications. If it does have any serious flaws, these are going to become apparent quite soon, because the first