Dutch government ordered to cut nitrogen pollution- or face €10M fine

A Dutch court on Wednesday ruled that Prime Minister Dick Schoof’s government must ramp up efforts to cut nitrogen pollution in protected nature areas, handing Greenpeace Netherlands a significant legal win.

The verdict requires the Schoof administration to ensure that at least half of the country’s most vulnerable habitats fall below harmful nitrogen thresholds by 2030 — or pay a €10 million penalty. The fine is small change for a national government, but the ruling adds fresh pressure on The Hague to tackle a problem that has dogged multiple administrations.

Schoof’s team, in office since June 2024, slashed a €24.3-billion transition fund set up by predecessor Mark Rutte that was originally intended to buy out polluting farms and support sustainability efforts. Instead, the new, right-wing cabinet shifted its focus to technological solutions and voluntary measures, aiming to reduce emissions without stoking rural unrest.

The court, however, insisted that without tangible financial and regulatory measures — especially targeting agriculture, transport and industry — the government risks further damage to nature and noncompliance with European Union environmental laws.

Greenpeace Netherlands celebrated the verdict but emphasized the need for immediate action.

“This ruling is a celebration for nature and finally brings clarity,” said Andy Palmen, the NGO’s director. “The government will have to come up with proposals that will finally give farmers clarity and support them in a fair way in the necessary transition to ecological agriculture.”

This isn’t the first time a Dutch court has intervened in the country’s nitrogen saga. Since 2019, a series of landmark rulings has triggered permit freezes for construction projects, imposed stricter animal-feed rules and repeatedly faulted The Hague for failing to protect biodiversity. The controversy has fueled massive farmer protests, with tractors clogging highways and city centers across the Netherlands in defiance of anticipated herd reductions and new farm standards.

The verdict reverberates beyond Dutch borders, as several other EU countries also struggle with excessive nitrogen emissions — caused in large part by intensive livestock farming but also industrial pollution and transport — in contravention of European nature laws.

Courts have become a key tool for civil society to compel environmental action in recent years, amid a broader political shift to the right that has seen parties that advocate for farmers and are skeptical of environmental measures gain power in Brussels and national capitals.

From Germany to France and Ireland, such legal challenges have pushed governments to strengthen climate and biodiversity targets, underlining a broader European trend of judicial intervention as governments struggle to reconcile environmental obligations with political and economic pressures.

Schoof’s government — which includes Agriculture Minister Femke Wiersma, who hails from a farmers’ protest party — has yet to respond, but a formal appeal seems likely. Failing to comply could bring down more lawsuits or the wrath of Brussels for breaching EU rules. Doubling down on tough pollution cuts, however, risks sparking another wave of farmer demonstrations — precisely the kind of unrest Schoof was hoping to avoid.