Climate obstruction in the Netherlands: Strategic and systemic obstruction of Dutch climate policies (1980- present)

By the 1980s, Dutch politicians had begun to acknowledge the climate change problem and took the international lead in political agenda-setting. Yet, the Netherlands cannot be seen as a climate hero. When the government has acted, it has favoured ‘positive’ measures appreciated by industry, such as creating subsidies for more ‘sustainable’ oil refineries through technofixes, retaining €30 billion in annual fossil subsidies, and seeking to speed the process for obtaining new drilling licenses for North Sea gas fields. This chapter provides evidence that high-emitting industries and state actors have significantly obstructed mitigation regulations from the 1980s to the present using tactics of climate denial, doubt mongering, and lobbying. The Dutch history of climate governance is therefore one of great ambitions dashed by these efforts but also partly systemic, the effect of the strong dependencies and alignments that have long existed between the Dutch state and its fossil fuel industry.