Week 28

July 16, 2023

Week 28

The fall of Government and climate change

From nu.nl

The fall of the Rutte IV cabinet may mean a delay for numerous climate measures. Experts warn that the outgoing cabinet and the House of Representatives must continue to press ahead in order to achieve the climate goals for 2030.

A thick package of letters fell on the (digital) mat at the outgoing cabinet and at the House of Representatives in recent days. They come from employers' associations, trade associations, environmental organizations and local governments. The thrust is always the same: continue with climate policy as if the cabinet has never fallen.

The organizations fear that the climate goals will get out of sight and the country will come to a standstill due to the fall of the cabinet. And "stagnation is decline," as a coalition of wildlife groups put it. That is why we should continue with climate policy, the organizations believe.

But it is unclear whether the outgoing cabinet of the House of Representatives is allowed to continue with the climate plans as if nothing had happened. Some measures are politically sensitive and can therefore be declared controversial. They will only be treated again when there is a new cabinet.

My own view is that Rutte has probably had enough - but it is also hard to see anyone taking his place with all the problems at the moment - in fact, a few others have also announced their retirement from "politics".

Immigration was just the straw that broke the camel's back. The Climate and Nitrogen issues, the Groningen Gas, and quite a few other pressures have finally taken their toll - on Rutte, at least.

The BBB ( a farmers citizen movement) had an extremely successful (if misguided) publicity campaign - about protecting "the poor old farmers - who produce our food, after all" (my cynical view). The leader of the movement said she wouldn't want to be Prime Minister (not much) but if she was then she would focus on Netherlands local issues and "leave the world stage to her Foreign Minister", yeah, right.

The BBB were essentially against the strong measures of the Nitrogen (looming crisis) and want to push it further into the future because the farmers were "unfairly" copping the brunt of the measures required to address the problem - mostly with compulsory buy outs "above the market price". The measures required are already part of EU regulations. It was always about the money but they campaigned on the food we need - not mentioning how much is exported.

The Building Industry also has to change, which will ultimately increase the cost of building - with the housing sector already in a mess - with 900,000 new homes required by 2030.

Nitrogen and the electricity grid

According to the organizations, improving the electricity grid is one of the things that cannot wait for a new cabinet. In order to become more sustainable, many more people have to use electric cars and heat pumps. Companies must also use much more electricity instead of fossil fuels. To make all this possible, the power grid needs a major overhaul.

But the nitrogen crisis is already causing delays. It is difficult to get permits for the construction of cables and power stations, because some nitrogen is emitted during construction. With a substantial package of measures and billions from a special nitrogen fund, the Rutte IV cabinet wanted to unlock construction again.

But, back in the world where we are just trying to get by...

We have kids this week, so no getting away on the boat :(

The storm blew some branches off the oak trees in the street - so we gathered them up and made some more firewood...

The drainage ditches are getting a bit overgrown, so we started tidying them up

...and tidied up the driveway to the campground

Our brother in law sometimes buys and sell caravans - set up at our place, so that it looks like the campground is in use - but we have rarely used it over the years - there's always too much other stuff to do.

We helped Therese move house - she now lives about an hour away on the border between Drenthe and Groningen - we can get there by boat! We think Lianne and the kids will be moving out soon - so we'll do a better upgrade inside, if nobody wants it straight away.

I think it was Ron and Nettie who told us about a bush property where friends of theirs wanted to build a house - but could only get a permit for a shed. They built the shed and then built a "normal" house inside. It gave me an idea to rip out the inside of the apartment - and start again with a bit more luxury (or at least "normal") rather than a just a "fixed up" cow shed.

Oh well, it keeps me busy :)

The two Greek men seem happy enough - they just work and sleep as far as I can see.

The mower needed fixing...again!

Luckily, I had the right spares

The Forward Scout from the Bank came to have a look at what we want to do with our energy proposals.

It gets complicated because the house has to be kept separate from the business as far as taxation goes...I called him the forward scout because he had to make a quick judgement and then direct the "Private" Account Manager OR the "Business" Account Manager to come along. He said yeah, no worries, just tell us how much the builder wants and then add 10% for all the unseen things. I told him we will probably want to do something similar for the business energy costs sometime in the future. That's everything else!

So, all moving ahead....slowly as usual.

I have a new book to read: North German Inland Waterways.