Open letter air pollution

Dear Melanie Schultz van Haegen, minister for infrastructure and the environment.

Every day, an average of 27 people die prematurely in the Netherlands due to polluted air. While we put big stops into preventing traffic deaths (an average of 2 deaths per day), hardly any action is taken against air pollution. Unlike with traffic deaths, you cannot easily see who died due to air pollution. These people, especially the elderly and the young, have no face. And that makes it too easy for politicians to dismiss it with the phrase: "we are working on it". Subsequently, progress comes only piecemeal.

You expressed satisfaction that we exceeded European standards just a little less this year than in previous years. In doing so, you failed to mention that the European rules are a compromise between our health and the interests of companies. Looking only at the former, the air still needs to become two and a half times cleaner, and this is the standard used by the World Health Organisation.

In Rotterdam, the municipality took real measures to save these lives: they instituted an environmental zone. Dirty old cars are no longer welcome in the city centre. People with such cars can turn in the vehicles for a fee. Instead of welcoming this as a minister, you are trying to thwart it. There will be no uniform signs to make the environmental zone clear to drivers and you even spoke briefly about abolishing it.

In the province of Utrecht, you are pushing through the construction of a new motorway. A highway that the people of Utrecht do not want. A highway that was only needed in an outdated paper reality. At the expense of a forest enjoyed by thousands of people.

At the same time, you spend your time laughing and cutting ribbons, for yet another motorway on which 130 km/h can be driven. Hundreds of millions cost the treasury for this change. This is offset by the paltry pleasure of now being allowed to press the accelerator a little harder. Checking the impact of this on our air leaves you wanting. One measuring pole at one of the many highways only stands. This pole does show deteriorating air quality: since the speed increase from 100 to 130, there is at least 10% more nitrogen dioxide in the air there.

Your colleague Henk Kamp opened three large coal-fired power plants during his ministership. How that can be reconciled with our right to health and clean air, the cabinet does not tell. You did not balk at subsidising biomass, which emits more nitrogen when burned. The clean alternatives provide much more employment. The construction sector benefits when it does pay for companies to invest in energy saving. Now the government often allows them to pollute almost for free.

Environmental Defence filed a case against the state to ensure that it complies with its duty to protect. We urge you not to wait for this case but to take immediate action. An issue that ends 27 lives a day prematurely deserves more attention. This week, we are sending you one letter per human life lost. We hope this will make you think, and that soon, at the end of your ministry, we will be able to remind you of more than unveiling 130 km/h signs.