In the Paris Agreement it was agreed that nations would work together to keep global temperature increase this century well below 2°C (above pre-industrial levels) and to pursue eff orts to even limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.
This agreement has led to an evolution of the European Union (EU) target to reduce CO2 emissions in the EU by 20% by 2020 to 40% by 2030, compared to the level of emissions in 1990. This includes a requirement for the share of renewable energy to be at least 20% and 27% respectively of all energy generation. Currently there are negotiations taking place to raise this requirement to 30% by 2030.
The Netherlands needs to catch-up.
The performance of the Netherlands is one of the worst within the EU when it comes to using renewable energy sources; only Luxembourg and Malta have a lower proportion of renewable energy in the mix. For this reason the Netherlands needs to catchup and a burgeoning investment programme is underway. In the recent government agreement published by the Rutte-III cabinet, it is indicated that the goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 40% will be increased to 49% by 2030. In order to achieve this, the cabinet needs to reduce CO2 emissions by an extra 56 megatons per year by 2030. This is equal to a quarter of the current CO2 emissions in the Netherlands.
Source : Savills