Conferentie ‘Connecting Clean Mobility’

Toespraak | 14-11-2007

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honour for me to address this international congress on sustainable mobility. Increased mobility and its negative effects on our living environment make this an important subject. We face enormous challenges. How will we develop clean, efficient cars and fuels? How can we encourage sustainable innovation in these areas? What fuel mix will we choose? How can we keep our economy strong and our environment sustainable?

My message for you today is: were headed in the right direction, but we still have a world to win.

International and regional cooperation and exchange of knowledge are in any case good ways to find effective responses to the challenges we face. So connecting clean mobility is a well-chosen title.

I applaud cross-border cooperation for sustainable mobility, as with the partnership between the Netherlands and Gelderland in particular and North Rhine-Westphalia. Ich möchte auch unsere Gäste aus Nordrhein-Westfalen recht herzlich begrüßen. Its important to use our resources at regional level to share knowledge about biomass fuel production and transport, for example, and share our experiences with implementing the EUs Air Quality Directive.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Two months ago I presented the programme Clean and Efficient under the title New Energy for the Climate. In this programme, the government laid out the specific measures and actions that are needed to achieve our climate and energy objectives. Our aim is to make the Netherlands one of the cleanest and most energy-efficient countries in Europe.
What are the goals of Clean and Efficient?

• to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO₂ emissions, by thirty per cent from 1990 levels by 2020;
• to double the pace of energy savings in the coming years from one per cent to two per cent a year;
• to increase the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption from about two per cent now to twenty per cent in 2020.

The programme lays out our goals for energy savings, renewable energy and CO₂ storage, among other things. We want to break with the current trends. That is an ambitious goal; but I believe this programme will enable us to meet our goals for 2020.

Of course, the goals of Clean and Efficient cannot be viewed in isolation from the issue of air quality. The Netherlands is not in compliance with the European standards for particulates and nitrous oxides. Although air quality in our country has improved dramaticallyin recent years, thousands of people are still dying prematurely every year from the polluted air they breathe. People with cardiovascular diseases are especially vulnerable. As a result, many road widening schemes, new industrial parks and house-building projects have been suspended. The negative effects of mobility are affecting our economy and the health of our people.

In the fight against air pollution, the government is following four tracks.

• Policy measures: the government is providing incentives for (for example) particulate traps and cleaner public transport.
• Legislation: an amendment to the Environmental Management Act will allow a more flexible balance to be struck between land-use development and air quality.
• International action: the Netherlands means to tackle the problem at its source by pushing for higher EU standards for car, truck and vessel emissions.
• Implementation: government authorities will work together and come up with solutions to make it possible to comply with EU limits for air quality everywhere in the country.

Traffic and transport are responsible for about twenty per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. If current policies were left in place, this proportion would rise sharply. This sector faces the challenge of making a major contribution to the national reduction targets for 2020. This requires a package of domestic measures, and above all intensive efforts to take forward EU source policy. We need new forms of cooperation between government, business and social partners.

The Netherlands wants to have one of the most efficient transport systems in Europe by 2020, including widespread use of sustainable, climate-neutral fuels. Clean fuels and clean engines can limit air quality problems like particulates and nitrous oxides and substantially reduce CO₂ emissions from vehicles. These are ambitious but attainable goals. We can come a long way by making tough agreements at EU level on clean engines, efficient vehicles, CO₂ emissions standards and large-scale use of alternative fuels. But this means that we have to take bold action, at national and European level.

So the Netherlands means to prove itself one of the most innovative countries in Europe when it comes to traffic and transport. This demands intensive cooperation among players that have never worked together so closely before: regional, interregional, national and international authorities, businesses and research institutions.

What are the measures with which the Netherlands can reach its goals for sustainable mobility? First and foremost, we will push for effective source policy through tougher regulation and higher standards, preferably at European level. European standards are crucial to reducing CO₂ emissions from cars. The Netherlands has set its sights on a standard of 120 to 130 grams of CO₂ per kilometre in 2012, moving to 100 grams in 2016 and 80 grams in 2020. The required percentage of biofuels in the energy supply will have to rise sharply by 2010: well see whether a mandatory twenty per cent renewable fuels by 2020 is feasible.

Secondly, the government will stimulate demand for clean and efficient vehicles and induce car owners to make sustainable choices. To this end, environmental costs will be included in the price of mobility. Businesses and individuals will be better informed about how to choose more sustainable vehicles and be given financial incentives to buy cleaner, more efficient cars. The government has set a good example by making the fleet of official vehicles more sustainable and purchasing cleaner public transport vehicles. Regional and local government play an essential role in this respect. The transition to sustainable mobility can take place more quickly in municipalities and regions that are at the forefront of developments.

Thirdly, the government will encourage innovation with demonstration and incentive programmes to show people how promising innovations work out in practice and how they can be successfully marketed. These innovations are at different stages of development. The programme The Car of the Future is aimed at speeding up the introduction of clean, efficient, quiet, safe and smart vehicles on the Dutch market. Innovation in the Dutch car industry, aimed particularly at more efficient vehicles, also falls under this heading.

Finally, the government will try to improve public transport and ensure better connections with other means of transport, like cars and bicycles. A fairer kilometre levy, varying according to time, place and the vehicles environmental characteristics, will be introduced. Road users who use their cars less and produce less pollution will pay less to drive. We can make substantial environmental progress in this way.

Sustainable biofuels are very much in the news right now. The subject is much debated and raises many dilemmas. Biofuels hold promise but also involve risks, for Europe and above all for developing countries. So I would like to talk about them briefly.

Consumption of biomass as a source of energy is expected to rise substantially in the next several years. Goals have been set at both EU and national level to increase the use of biomass for energy and transport and particularly to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Biomass also offers opportunities to develop regional biobased economies. However, biomass production for energy must not occur at the expense of other important aspects of nature, the environment and society. Therefore the Netherlands is pushing to implement sustainability criteria as quickly as possible. They are being drawn up by the Sustainable Biomass Production Project Group and should have broad public support.

Ensuring transparency in the various production processes is an important first step towards sustainability. To this end, a reporting requirement will be established as quickly as possible. This means that companies that are required to supply biofuels, for example, will be obliged to report about important aspects of their production process, such as fuel type, origin and method of production of the biomass used, previous use of the land, and net greenhouse gas emissions.

Ladies and gentlemen,

This morning I opened a new natural gas filling station in Nijmegen . Natural gas is one of our options in the transition to entirely sustainable mobility. Its clean, in plentiful supply and reduces CO₂. A few weeks ago I received a letter signed by natural gas companies, biogas producers, car manufacturers and many others, promising to try to make a transition as quickly as possible from natural gas to biogas in transport. They have my enthusiastic support.
In the longer term there will be even more fuel options, including biodiesel, ethanol and hydrogen. In general, these are all positive developments, though some are further advanced and closer to being marketed than others. The technology of the established fuels petrol and diesel is also being steadily improved. And new technologies are on the way, such as hybrid electric power and weight-saving construction.

Decisions will have to be made over the next several years about which technologies and fuels should be used most. We will have to see which fuels are most suitable for specific market segments, assessing them on the basis of their environmental benefits. Temporary support, to give new fuels and technologies a chance to quickly capture a share of the market, is advisable in a context of high oil prices. Government has the task of creating the right market conditions; ultimately, the market judges which technologies will win out.

In short, we have to provide opportunities and incentives for innovation, while remaining alert to possible negative effects. We need to focus on the best solutions for both the short and long term. It is essential in this process to benefit from other countries experiences, such as the Kraftstoffmatrix in Germany. The joint Dutch and North Rhine-Westphalian study of the optimal use of ethanol in petrol is a good, concrete example of cross-border cooperation. I hope this conference will result in more such examples.
By the way, clean fuels and clean cars are not the whole story. Traffic infrastructure and a better driving style also play an important role, certainly in the short run. Maarssen Day, where innovative breakthroughs in the fields of infrastructure and road maintenance were presented, was a significant initiative in this regard.

I'm talking, for example, about noise barriers that absorb particulates and transform them into message displays and generators with fuel cells that emit neither particulates nor carbon dioxide. All the equipment used in road work produces a million tons of CO₂ a year equivalent to the emissions from half a million SUV's. All these innovations can help us achieve a sustainable living environment.

In conclusion, we are facing enormous challenges in the field of sustainable mobility. If we face them together, we still have a world to win. Together we can make a difference: the difference between a world full of particulates and greenhouse gases and a world of clean air and less greenhouse gases. Were on the right road: towards a world with a sustainable future and living environment for all its inhabitants. A twenty-first century with sustainable mobility, better fuels, cleaner cars and new technologies like hybrid cars and fuel cells.

Lets build that sustainable future together!

Thank you.