According to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), the country is lagging behind on its current climate objectives set in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Despite the 2015 climate ruling by the District Court of The Hague, which ordered to reduce CO2 emissions by 25% by 2020 compared with 1990 levels, CO2 emissions are estimated to be only 21% lower. In addition, the share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption is expected to grow from 6.6% in 2017 to 12% in 2020, i.e. below the European target for the Netherlands of 14% in 2020. Finally, the final energy saving as a result of the Energy Agreement (2013) should amount to 81 PJ in 2020, i.e. below the current policy package target of 100 PJ in 2020.
Following this ruling, the government has announced it would implement the order to cut CO2 emissions by 25% by 2020 and plans to reach the 2020 target will be presented in April 2019. The Dutch government has unveiled an ambitious programme to phase out all coal plants and cut emissions by 49% by 2030 (compared with 1990 levels) but challenged the judiciary’s powers to intervene in policy decisions.