The column The Greenhouse Features Climate Reporter Jeroen Kraan Writing Weekly about what he notices. This week: There is a Broad Call for Stable Climate Policy. But that is Easier Said Than Done.
The Commentary From the Most Important Cabinet Advisors was Unanimous on Budget Day: Strong, Stable and Predictable Climate Policy is Needed. The Current ‘Wobbly Policy’ must stop. An understandable Wish, because the Netherlands is not on track to meet the 2030 climate target and probably will not be on track before then.
I have leg following this file for years, but it still taught me QUITE TIME TO Google All these steps together again. Even if you deal with climate policy on a daily basis, The Wobbling is Sometimes Difficult to keep up with.
So it is not surprising that the call for stable policy is broad, also from the industry. Who Still Wants To Invest Money In a Sustainable Factory If There Is A Good Chance That The Rules Will Change Duration Construction? Think of the heat pump manufacturers who build factories because the hybrid heat pump would be mandatory. Two years later: not after all. Too bad.
So yes, stable policy would be better in many ways. But what exactly do we want then? When Companies Call for Stable Policy, They Often Mainly Mean Favorable Policy.
The Large Emitters Are Certainly Not Waiting for a Sky-High But Extremely Stable CO2 Tax. Just as many citizens are not waiting for a stable high gasoline excise duty. Then we think it is nice if politicians wobble those costs away for us.
Hermans: ‘Must look around me’
Another Problem is that stable policy can also lead to unforesene problems if the world around you changes. Outgoing Climate Minister Sophie Hermans Invoked That Argument When I Asked Her On Budget Day Why She Now Wants To Abolish the Co2 Levy, While She had Argued for It With Full Conviction This Summer.
“That is politics, I have to look around me?” She reacted sharply. “I can’t pretend that nothing is going on, as if trade tariffs don’t exist, as if the industry is not on the hive of collapse? The strategic autonomy, the security, the competitive position of the Netherlands – I have to relate that, right?”
It is of course True that the world does not stand still, and that you sometimes have to move with it. Look at the Netting Scheme: A Great Idea That Has caused Solar Energy to Grow Nogty Lously in the Netherlands. But Precisely the Success of the Scheme Began To Cause Overloading of the Electricity Grid. Moreover, a small scheme had Suddenly Grown Into A Tax Reduction of More Than 600 Million euros per year.
Not very strange that you want to change something. The result: newspapers full of furious letters to the editor about fickle government policy.
What do the people at home want?
And so we come to the last problem. All of us, the ‘people at home’, as we are known in the house of representatives, send a new team to the hague every few years to turn the tide completely. Then you shouldnn’t be surprised if you get wobble policy.
This is not a Dutch problem. The Climate Plans Built Up By American President Joe Biden Have Been Down with a Chainsaw by His Successor Donald Trump. Even the syrupy EU, normally so steadfast through endetsly negotiated compromises, Has Been cutting into own climate policy again the European Elections.
But yes, what is the alternative? There is one country in the world that is the epitome of long-term, targeted climate and industry policy: China. Let that also be a country where you cannot write a fierce note to the free press, and where you certainly cannot cast a vote to turn the tide.
Of course, it would be good to talk more the long term in the run-up to the elections, so that we can soon vote for politicians who will not sit down and wobble without vision. But in a democracy like Ours, we must also recognize that you can never really count on stable policy. At Least Not As Long As We, The People At Home, Do Not Ask For It In The Voting Booth.