Netherlands must lower nitrogen emissions, court rules

The Netherlands must meet its 2030 target to reduce nitrogen emissions or face a 10-million euro penalty, a court said Wednesday in a case brought by Greenpeace.

In a rare sanction for the state, a court in The Hague said the Dutch government had not made enough effort to halt the progressive decline of several EU protected nature reserves needed to absorb nitrogen.

The court said nitrogen deposits measured in these protected areas, part of the European Natura 2000 programme, are much higher than what they can absorb, contravening both Dutch and European law.It added that it was already too late for the Netherlands to reach its 2025 targets, but ordered the nation to do everything it could to meet those it had set for the end of 2030.