Dutch employers' association VNO-NCW claimed on Tuesday that the measures Environment State Secretary Pieter van Geel intends to implement to reduce Greenhouse gas emissions are doomed to failure. VNO-NCW chairman Jacques Schraven also said that the junior minister's policy will damage the Dutch business sector and reduce competitiveness, news agency ANP reported. Due to the seriousness of the Greenhouse Effect, Van Geel intends to push for dramatic crackdown on Carbon Dioxide C02 emissions when the Netherlands holds the six-month rotating European Union Presidency starting from 1 July. But Schraven said Van Geel is placing environment policies at risk if the state secretary thinks he will gain global support for climate policies with an "extreme objective" of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020. "All countries that are relevant for climate policy will immediately drop out," he said. | Those that want to keep their industrial base, that is. |
Van Geel labelled the stance of VNO-NCW as "incomprehensible and irresponsible". He told Radio 1 that the Netherlands can provide a good example in terms of environmentally-friendly policies for other nations. But VNO-NCW chief Schraven also criticised the objectives placing limits on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, such as agreed to in the Kyoto Protocol. He said these methods will place severe pressure on countries that have high emissions and industry will thus relocate to countries that are not striving working towards meeting the protocol's objectives. Greenhouse gas emissions can be better reduced by making new agreements on an international level, he said. But Schraven also admitted that support for global climate agreements is crumbling, rather than strengthening. | "We signed what? Screw that." |
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