Dutch treat

The Netherlands, although a small country in terms of territory, has a wealth of cutting edge environmental knowledge.

The low-lying country, with about 27 percent of its area and 60 percent of its population located below sea level, is constantly challenged by the threats of global warming. So the Netherlands is reaching out to other countries to share its environmental technologies to find a possible cure for the planet.

Jacqueline Cramer, the Netherlands Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM), and two of her colleagues, talked with China Business Weekly's reporter Li Jing about cooperation between China and the Netherlands regarding environmental protection and climate change.

Q: I have learned that you will be meeting China's Minister of Environmental Protection in November. What will be topics for the dialogue? Is that possible that the two ministries reach some kind of agreement on future cooperation?

A: We are still at the early phase of preparation for the visit. If everything has been settled, we will talk about a Memorandum of Understanding on environmental cooperation between VROM and China's Ministry of Environmental Protection.

A number of issues will be included in the MOU: environmental laws and regulations, air and water pollution control, soil and groundwater pollution control, protection of the ozone layer, clean production and sustainable consumption, environmental management of chemicals, biodiversity, and finally management of toxic waste.

Cooperation between China and the Netherlands on environmental protection issues was updated for the last time in 2002. I would also like to get feedback on the projects developed jointly until now.

Q: The Netherlands and China have worked with each other in the past several years, for example, to solve soil pollution problems in China. What are the results of these projects?

A: With regard to soil pollution prevention in China we are currently successfully implementing two projects in cooperation with the Netherlands Soil Partnership, which is a network of all Dutch entities on soil and ground water management.

The first project is on soil quality standards. It resulted in risk-based standards and knowledge on how such standards could be established.

The second one provides educational courses on sustainable soil management. This project helped with capacity building for decision-makers on how to move forward from a problem to a project, and from a project to a program.

It is essential for decision-makers to define the priorities in solving an enormous diversity of pollution problems in a huge country like China with a large diversity of soil functions.

Think about oil contamination, or pollution from heavy metals in mining areas, also pollution by pesticides in agriculture, as well as contamination of water basins through polluted groundwater. The task is not easy, especially when decision-makers have also other emerging priorities.

Because of the strong relationship between water and soil, Dutch-based wastewater technology providers are also active in China, such as Paques, Norit and the Netherlands Water Partnership.

Two countries also worked successfully together in the field of waste management.

Many delegations of the Chinese government at all levels have visited the Netherlands to study the Dutch approach, which, as you might know, has an outstanding reputation and performance in waste management.

Within the European Union the Netherlands is one of the best performing countries, with less than 5 percent of all our waste disposed in landfills and more than 83 percent recycled.

Q: Dutch society has a strong consciousness toward environmental protection. But consciousness is not enough; a sound regulatory and supervising mechanism is also crucial to ensure the concept translated into practice. So what is the Netherlands doing on these aspects?

A: We have many years experience on regulation, which is a basis for environmental policies. There are also other policy instruments, such as market incentives, taxing systems and some social regulations.

For instance, we have covenants, which are voluntary agreements between enterprises and government to reach long-term and short-term goals on specific issues. Communication of environment related information to the public is another part of the social regulations.

The aim is to internalize the external costs of environmental pollution, to create sustainable markets and a low carbon economy. Our environmental policies are supported by a sound system of legislation, enforcement and control.

Q: The Netherlands is successful in terms of using various market instruments, including regulations, permits, covenants and financial incentives to address its environmental problems. China too is introducing such measurements to tackle pollution. Could you share some experiences or lessons from this?

A: The Netherlands has very positive experiences with tax incentives.

Taxes on gasoline or diesel are much higher here in Europe than in other countries, for example, the United States. This has led European carmakers to build fuel-efficient cars, while American carmakers prefer those enormous gas-guzzling machines.

But now American consumers are selling their SUVs and buying smaller European and Japanese cars. This exemplifies how strict environmental standards and taxation can bring about competitive advantages for industries and companies.

Through tax breaks, the Dutch government is encouraging people choosing environmental friendly vehicles. The Netherlands has an added tax on leased cars. For regular cars, the tax is 25 percent of the catalogue price. This year, we have introduced a reduced rate of 20 percent for highly fuel-efficient cars and 14 percent for hybrid cars.

The Dutch government will also introduce a kilometer tax in 2011 and 2012. From then on, we are not taxing cars anymore when they are sold, but only when they are used. People who drive more, and emit more greenhouse gasses, have to pay more.

Another instrument that I would like to mention is the stringent environmental standards for appliances and installations.

The Netherlands' experience has proved that using the highest level of the standard is a cost-effective way to ensure exports to all existing markets and stimulate innovation.

China can use the scale of its economy to achieve even further cost-efficiency and become a competitive supplier for the growing international market for environmentally sound technology.

Q: The Netherlands is a country that actively involved in the battle against climate change. In the previous years, it has invested in some of projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in China. Will the two countries have more cooperation?

A: In the Netherlands, the Ministry VROM is responsible for the overall climate change policy, as well as for the governmental CDM procurement program.

Through the program, the Dutch government will spend more than 200 million euros purchasing carbon credits from sustainable CDM projects in China until 2012.

Currently VROM is involved in 13 CDM projects in China, concerning various technologies such as renewable energy generation through hydropower and wind, utilization of coalbed methane, as well as the reduction of other strong heat-trapping greenhouse gases like hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) and HCFC, a gas used as a refrigerant.

In fact, the first CDM project approved by the Chinese government was developed in cooperation with the Netherlands - a windmill park in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

In addition, many Dutch private companies are involved in CDM projects in China as consultant, investors, project developers and traders.

The Netherlands hopes that this mutually beneficial cooperation with China in the field of climate change, including the carbon market will continue also after 2012, when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends.

(China Daily 10/13/2008 page5)