Press | Council for the Environment and Infrastructure

Press releases

47 press releases

Fourth term of the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli) started officially on 1 August 2024

Rli 1 August 2024 - Meet the council members and junior council members

The government needs to promote more than economic growth

Rli 9 July 2024 - The public measure their wellbeing by more than their material well-being. For them, wellbeing is also about factors such as health, safety, the quality of their living environment and the quality of education. We refer to this set of factors as wellbeing. The promotion of wellbeing by the government will lead to better policies for the public. However, this can only succeed if the pros and cons…

Cabinet and parliament fall short in safeguarding the rule of law

Rli 26 June 2024 - Is it the legislature, the administration, or the courts that determine policy on the environment? Various court cases on environmental issues – such as Urgenda's climate case, cases on nitrogen, pesticides or Schiphol Airport – show that the task of safeguarding the rule of law is becoming too one-sidedly vested in the courts, whereas the Government and Parliament also have an important role to…

Anticipate climate change in spatial choices

Rli 12 June 2024 - Climate change has major spatial consequences. Measures to keep the Netherlands water safe, protect it against flooding and ensure the availability of sufficient freshwater require additional space. How we use space for living, working, agriculture, energy and nature will also change. At present, this is something that authorities, citizens and businesses do not take sufficiently into account. In…

Advisory board: help homeowners and tenants with foundation damage

Rli 3 June 2024 - Many buildings in the Netherlands are built on unstable soil, and more than 400,000 of the country’s properties are therefore expected to face foundation damage. This means major problems for many: they feel unsafe in their home or have money worries. If the government does not help resolve the problem, the costs to Dutch society will eventually rise to over €50 billion and social…

Advisory council calls on Dutch government to pay greater attention to implementation of policy for the living environment

Rli 23 February 2024 - Implementation of policy for the living environment is lagging behind, meaning that urgent problems are not being solved. The Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli) therefore calls on the Dutch government to strike a much better balance between policy development and policy implementation in actual practice. The Rli does so in its advisory report on “Bridging the Implementation Gap…

Advisory board: Stop the throw-away society

Rli 24 November 2023 - More and more products end up as waste after only a short time. The desire to produce and sell as much as possible – for example clothing, furniture, and electronics – leads to low quality and short product lifespans. This is at the expense of working conditions, the climate, and the environment. If we want to make our economy sustainable, this must be stopped. In its advisory report Phasing Out…

Government needs to support sustainable business parks

Rli 31 October 2023 - Central government should set goals for the sustainability of business parks. Organised cooperation between businesses is vital in order to achieve these goals together. Central government should encourage such organisation and eventually make it a legal requirement. The formation of an organisation is also in the interest of the businesses themselves. These are the conclusions reached by the…

Additional measures needed to ensure good water quality

Rli 11 May 2023 - The quality of groundwater and surface water in the Netherlands is poor. Moreover, national and international regulations are not being followed. For example, the European Water Framework Directive sets standards to be achieved by 2027. But this objective is almost certainly no longer feasible, which is harmful to people and nature. Also, legal proceedings can hamper economic activities in the…

Advice of Rli, RVS and ROB to the Dutch government: A change of approach is needed in the area of regional policy

Rli 27 March 2023 - There are significant regional disparities in wellbeing in the Netherlands and these disparities are widening. Government policy should focus on countering undesirable disparities, as compensating for deficits alone is not enough. Investment in long-term regional development is needed throughout the Netherlands. When making policy choices, the government should place the emphasis not only on…