Press release

The Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, Carola Schouten, has set out her ambition to establish a circular agriculture system in the Netherlands. The Council for the Environment and Infrastructure advises the minister to make increasing use of European agricultural funding to support this effort over the coming years and makes a number of recommendations in its advice published on 22 May 2019, ‘European Agricultural Policy: Working Towards Circular Agriculture’.

The Netherlands must transition to sustainability. Over the coming decades our energy supply, our food system and our economy will be radically transformed. We will also have to adapt to climate change. All tiers of government are working on these four development agendas, but implementation will be a regional affair. The regions are where these agendas will either reinforce each other or stand in each other’s way. The Council for the Environment and Infrastructure has explored this issue by examining the case of the Southwest Delta region. In its report published on 26 March 2019, ‘The Sum of the Parts: Converging national and regional challenges’, the Council concludes not only that an integrative approach in the regions is needed, but also that this can give a positive impetus to the regions themselves.

20 November 2018 – The National Environment and Planning Strategy, which is expected to be published early in 2019, is the Dutch government’s main instrument for orienting spatial development in order to ensure a good quality environment. Essential to achieving this is a coherent and integrative approach to the major environmental and development challenges facing the Netherlands. The Council for the Environment and Infrastructure is concerned that there is too little evidence of this in the preparation of the Strategy and in the arrangements for taking it forward. The Council believes that a stronger political steer by the government and more inter-authority cooperation will be needed during the preparation of the Strategy. That is one of the recommendations the Council makes in its advisory letter ‘National Environment and Planning Strategy: Litmus Test for the new Environmental and Planning Policy’, which was presented today to Kajsa Ollongren, the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.

In the long term, Dutch climate targets will inevitably lead to a lower permissible livestock production capacity and a change in diet. The Dutch government should prepare for this transition by developing a new food policy that will minimise the negative consequences and take advantage of the opportunities that will arise. This is the conclusion of the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli) in its advisory report ‘Sustainable and Healthy’, which was presented on 3 April to Carola Schouten, Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, and Paul Blokhuis, State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport.

Technology is changing society. Although new applications can be of great value, they can also encroach upon existing values. Government, citizens and the private sector must prepare for this, so that society can effectively anticipate the effects of technological innovations rather than being caught ‘off guard’. This is one of the conclusions reached by the Dutch Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Raad voor de Leefomgeving en Infrastructuur, Rli) in its advisory report ‘Assessing the Value of Technology’, which was presented at 10 March 2017 to the Minister of Economic Affairs, the Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment, and the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. The report offers recommendations on ways to reduce risks and make better use of the opportunities presented by technological innovations.