Dutch Court Orders Government to Slash Nitrogen Emissions

Members and supporters of the Farmers Defense Force demonstrate against the Dutch government's nitrogen policy in the Zuiderpark in The Hague, Netherlands, on March 11, 2023. Robin Utrecht/ANP/AFP via Getty Images

A court in the Netherlands ordered the Dutch government on Wednesday to significantly reduce nitrogen emissions by 2030, a ruling likely to further concern farmers who have previously staged protests over efforts to reduce emissions.

Activist group Greenpeace brought the case, arguing that the government was not doing enough to reduce illegally high levels of nitrogen oxide emissions caused by intensive farming, heavy fertilizer use, traffic, and construction in the densely populated nation.

The District Court of The Hague sided with the climate campaigners, saying the government had failed to comply with European Union regulations to preserve vulnerable nature reserves and cut excessive emissions of nitrogen oxides and ammonia, the use of which hurts biodiversity and damages the quality of water.

It ordered the Dutch state to meet its target of reducing the emissions to legally allowed levels in 50 percent of all affected nature reserves by 2030 and ruled that it should be fined 10 million euros ($10.4 million) if the goal is not met.

The court said that the nation had so far reduced emissions to the required levels in 28 percent of the reserves. Both sides have six weeks to appeal.

The issue is seen as a potential fracture point for the already fragile coalition government, which includes Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party and the Farmer-Citizen Movement. The latter was created specifically to protest against the anti-nitrogen measures.

As environmentalists hailed the court order as a victory, Wilders and several farmers’ groups said it illustrated that the laws related to nitrogen emissions were too stringent.

“We don’t need more nitrogen policies. We need to relax nitrogen rules and targets!” Wilders said on social media platform X.

Agriculture Minister Femke Wiersma said she was disappointed by the court ruling and was considering appealing the decision.

“We take the nitrogen problem very seriously, but we can’t ask the impossible of people and companies,” she wrote on social media.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, who has no party affiliation and was previously a career civil servant, said last week that the issue was a major problem his coalition could not ignore.

Schoof announced he would establish a ministerial committee to come up with solutions.

Greenpeace Netherlands Executive Director Andy Palmen said, “The celebration is bittersweet, however, as it should not have taken a court intervention to achieve.”

In 2022, thousands of farmers drove tractors through the streets of The Hague to protest proposals by the previous government to curb emissions.

Nitrogen-related policies have led to protests by farmers in neighboring Belgium, while Denmark passed a nitrogen rule in late 2024 in an effort to protect marine life in its fjords.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.