You would almost forget, but climate policy has only been housed in its own ministry since last year. And not just any ministry, but a Ministry of Climate and Green Growth. That last term came straight from the election program of the VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy).
That program paid a lot of attention to an “ambitious and realistic climate policy,” as the party itself described it. With full support for the existing climate goals and a focus on the economic benefits of sustainability. For a moment, it seemed that climate was high on the agenda for most parties; only the extreme right flank did not take the problem seriously.
It ensured that even after the election victory of the PVV (Party for Freedom), a cabinet was formed that endorsed the climate goals. That is a win, even if it does not yet succeed in practice to achieve those goals. Climate change is simply a fact. We can try to ignore it, but for a country that hangs together from dikes, that is not a brilliant idea.
It is better if we all accept that we must do something about climate change, and then discuss the question of how we are going to do that: with subsidies or taxes, nuclear energy or hydrogen, green growth or ‘degrowth’?
In the previous election campaign, there was little discussion about it, and now I fear again a campaign in which important climate discussions are not held. Even the green-right VVD seems to have forgotten the subject again in all the commotion about Geert Wilders blowing up the cabinet.
VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz submitted her list of priorities on Wednesday during the debate about the fall of the cabinet. With a motion, she called on the cabinet to “continue fully” with the subjects that cannot tolerate standstill. Namely: “Asylum and migration, defense and resilience, support for Ukraine, security, nitrogen, spatial choices, housing construction, recovery operations, earning capacity and the wallet.”
Unfortunately, the climate has apparently fallen outside the top ten of the VVD. The party that ensured during the previous formation that the climate goals remained (on paper) – even managed to establish an entire ministry for it – apparently now has other priorities. Also with many other parties you did not immediately taste enthusiasm during the debate to let the upcoming campaign be about the climate.
Climate is related to everything
Now I hear some readers already thinking: there you have that climate reporter again, who certainly does not understand that we also have other problems in this country? We have to do something about that too, right?
But let climate change just be related to all kinds of themes that parties from left to right find important: resilience, security, earning capacity, the wallet. Anyone who thinks that it can get a few degrees warmer in this country without us feeling that in our wallet or in our security, I invite you to take the Climate Exam again.
We face major challenges in the field of climate: the construction of wind farms at sea and on land threatens to come to a standstill. The industry is shrinking, but hardly becoming greener. The electricity grid is pinching. The hydrogen economy is faltering. Our cities are not equipped for increasing heat and heavy rainfall. Cheap, fossil plastic goes en masse into the incinerator. Due to the disappearance of the net metering scheme, the enthusiasm for solar panels disappears for many people, and tenants are the losers.
Hopefully, the campaign in the coming months will also be about what we are going to do about it. Here in The Greenhouse, the climate is election theme number one anyway. Now we just have to hope that our selection of talk shows will occasionally free up a block for it.
Film tip of the week
In the documentary Homo Sapiens (2016) no one speaks. In fact, there are no people. The Austrian filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter only shows images of empty landscapes that humans once made, but are now abandoned. A dilapidated theater where rain drips in, a roller coaster that is underwater, an overgrown greenhouse, a village where the desert has penetrated.
The long shots, with only natural background noise, make you think about our place in the world. How quickly nature can win again when we leave a place. And what will happen to places that may become uninhabitable due to climate change. For rent on Vimeo.