Dutch Greenhouse Gas
Emissions Now at 1990 Levels
September 05, 2006 — By Toby Sterling, Associated Press
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Greenhouse gas
emissions in the Netherlands fell by around 2 percent in 2005 from a year
earlier and were at approximately the same level they were in 1990, a
government agency said Monday.
Climate change watchdogs generally praised the announcement by the
country's Central Bureau for Statistics, but said the public should be
skeptical about how the fall in emissions was measured and what it means.
"It's a good thing, but they (the Dutch) still have a way to go in order
to meet their targets under Kyoto," said Joris Thijssen of Greenpeace,
referring to the international treaty under which the Netherlands agreed
to reduce its emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2010.
The statistics agency said that total Dutch emissions were 214 billion
kilograms of carbon dioxide or equivalents, down 2 percent from 2004 and
just fractionally higher than 213 billion kilograms in 1990.
Agency spokesman Michiel Vergeer said the fall from 2004 was due to carbon
dioxide emissions saved by increased use of biomass fuel for electricity
generation, by households using less energy for heating during a warm
winter, and by increased import of electricity.
However, each of those reasons has a downside. A warm winter could be just
a fluke, or it could be due to global warming. Dutch biomass generators
have been accused of buying some fuel from suppliers in developing
countries who chop down old-growth forest to make room for biomass crops.
And when the Netherlands imports more electricity, that means the
exporters -- Germany and to a lesser extent France -- will have higher
emissions.
"We just report the data, it's up to others to interpret it," Vergeer
said.
John Hay, spokesman for the U.N.'s climate change agency UNFCCC, said the
Dutch announcement was "a good sign of sound international policies," and
added the U.N. would be releasing a broader report on the international
emissions landscape in October.
"A group of Kyoto countries are set to have rising emissions," in 2008 he
said. "Among high-performing economies some are doing well, others are off
the mark." He gave the example of Spain as a country likely to miss its
Kyoto targets because it has undergone faster economic growth than other
parts of Europe in the past 16 years.
The Netherlands also grew fast in the 1990s, and its carbon dioxide
emissions have actually risen. But that's been compensated by reductions
in emissions of methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorine, greenhouse gases
that are believed to contribute disproportionately to global warming.
Thijssen of Greenpeace said that the Dutch government would meet its Kyoto
goals not by further reductions, but by buying pollution credits from
developing countries, which is allowed under the 1997 treaty.
"Initially they said that they would aim for a 50-50 split between
emissions reductions in the Netherlands and emission reductions
elsewhere," he said. "Now they've let go of that."
He noted that the government last month announced a freeze on new
applications for subsidies for renewable energy projects because it
believes it will meet its Kyoto targets and a goal of having 9 percent of
electricity generated from renewable sources by 2010.
Source: Associated Press