World

Dutch election: Here’s why a nitrogen reduction target is a big issue

Published

1 year ago

November 20, 2023

Dutch election: Here’s why a nitrogen reduction target is a big issue

In a country of less than 18 million people and more than 116 million livestock, agriculture reigns supreme.

As the world’s second-largest exporter of agricultural products, along with half of its land being devoted to agriculture, the Netherlands is widely considered an agri-food superpower despite its tiny size.

But this, in its own right, creates problems. Namely, nitrogen emissions.

In high concentrations, the chemical element is dangerous for both nature and water quality, and in 2019 a pollution crisis led the Dutch government to set a goal of halving emissions from the gas by 2030.

This, of course, set itself on a collision course with the Dutch farming establishment, given that almost all human activities produce it, but in the Netherlands agriculture is the biggest culprit, responsible for 50% of all nitrogen.

“Basically, here in the Netherlands, there are two big reasons why we have a nitrogen problem for the first time, and it’s because we are a very densely populated area and we have the densest livestock concentration in Europe,” Daan Boezeman from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said in an interview with Euronews.

“On the other hand, the Netherlands has taken a rather strict interpretation of the European Habitats Directive, which stipulates that for every new kind of activity, we have to realise nitrogen reduction elsewhere.”

Dutch farmers are required to reduce their nitrogen footprint or sell their properties to the Dutch state, which put in place a voluntary “buyout scheme”, with a budget of €8 billion.

However, the scheme has not been very popular.

According to Jan Arie Koorevaar, who owns 115 cows on a 90-hectare property in South Holland and produces 100 million litres of milk per year in an almost 100% organic way, the government should focus more on boosting innovation, rather than reducing the size of farms.

“A lot of farmers are worried because it’s not clear to them what they need to do on their farms to meet the demands of the government,” Koorevaar told Euronews.

“I think there are also possibilities to reduce emissions for dairy farmers as well. If you can help them with the funding to reduce them with technological innovations, but we do not have that type of measure yet.

“And the other thing would be that the government helps to make your farm more extensive. So, helping, for instance, with the availability of land.”

But the issue has turned controversial ahead of the country’s elections next week.

While farmers are pushing back against the current provisions, some parties and environmental associations want even more. They’re asking for mandatory buyouts, instead of voluntary ones, halving emissions by 2030, and stricter targets on livestock reduction.

“We demand that the government helps farmers make the transition to ecological farming with 70% fewer animals in 2030 and 80% fewer in 2050, and actually help farmers or help the market set up a system in such a way that the farmer also has a good income, producing food for humans instead of a lot of food for animals,” Hilde Anna de Vries from Greenpeace Netherlands said.

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World

Jeff Baena, Film Director and Husband of Aubrey Plaza, Dead at 47

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3 minutes ago

January 4, 2025

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Jeff Baena, Film Director and Husband of Aubrey Plaza, Dead at 47

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World

World’s oldest person dies in Japan at 116

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1 hour ago

January 4, 2025

Press Room

World’s oldest person dies in Japan at 116

Tomiko Itooka, a Japanese woman who was the world’s oldest person, according to Guinness World Records, has died, an Ashiya city official said Saturday. She was 116.

Yoshitsugu Nagata, an official in charge of elderly policies, said Itooka died Dec. 29 at a care home in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, central Japan.

Itooka, who loved bananas and a yogurt-flavored Japanese drink called Calpis, was born May 23, 1908. She became the oldest person last year after the death of 117-year-old Maria Branyas, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

Tomiko Itooka celebrates her 116th birthday at the nursing home where she lives in Ashiya, Japan, May 23, 2024. (Ashiya City via AP)

WORLD’S OLDEST MAN, DEAD AT 112, ATE THIS MEAL EVERY FRIDAY

When she was told she was at the top of the World Supercentenarian Rankings List, she simply replied, “Thank you.”

When Itooka celebrated her birthday last year, she received flowers, a cake and a card from the mayor.

Born in Osaka, Itooka was a volleyball player in high school and long had a reputation for a sprightly spirit, Nagata said. She climbed the 3,067-meter (10,062-foot) Mount Ontake twice.

Tomiko Itooka celebrates her 116th birthday at the nursing home where she lives in Ashiya, Japan, May 23, 2024. (Ashiya City via AP)

OLDEST PERSON IN THE US, ELIZABETH FRANCIS, DIES AT 115 YEARS OLD IN HOUSTON

She married at 20, and had two daughters and two sons, according to Guinness.

Itooka managed the office of her husband’s textile factory during World War II. She lived alone in Nara after her husband died in 1979.

She is survived by one son and one daughter and five grandchildren. A funeral service was held with family and friends, according to Nagata.

According to the Gerontology Research Group, the world’s oldest person is now 116-year-old Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, who was born 16 days after Itooka.

World

Austrian chancellor to resign after coalition talks collapse

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2 hours ago

January 4, 2025

Press Room

Austrian chancellor to resign after coalition talks collapse

Nehammer says his People’s Party would not support measures that it believes would harm the economy or new taxes.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has said he will resign after talks between the country’s biggest centrist parties on forming a government without the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) collapsed.

The announcement on Saturday comes a day after the liberal Neos party withdrew from the negotiations with Nehammer’s conservative People’s Party (OVP) and the Social Democrats (SPO).

“After the breakoff of the coalition talks I am going to do the following: I will step down both as chancellor and party chairman of the People’s Party in the coming days,” he said.

In a video posted to his social media accounts, the outgoing chancellor said “long and honest” negotiations with the centre-left failed despite a shared interest in fending off the gaining far right.

Nehammer emphasised that his party would not support measures that it believes would harm the economy or new taxes.

He said he would enable “an orderly transition” and railed against “radicals who do not offer a single solution to any problem but only live from describing problems”.

The far-right Freedom Party (FPO) won the first parliamentary election in its history in late September with close to 30 percent of the vote.

But other parties refused to govern in a coalition with the eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO and its leader Herbert Kickl, so President Alexander Van der Bellen in late October tasked Nehammer to form a coalition.

Nehammer’s announcement comes after he also failed to reach an understanding with the Neos party.

Neos leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger said progress was impossible and that “fundamental reforms” had not been agreed upon.

After the chancellor’s exit, the OVP is expected to convene to discuss potential successors.

The political landscape remains uncertain in Austria, with no immediate possibility of forming a stable government due to ongoing differences between the parties.

The president may now appoint another leader and an interim government as the parties try to find a way out of the deadlock.

The next government in Austria faces the challenge of having to save between 18 to 24 billion euros ($18.5-24.7bn), according to the European Commission.

The country’s economy has been in a recession for the past two years, is experiencing rising unemployment and its budget stands at 3.7 percent of gross domestic product – above the European Union’s limit of 3 percent.