Greenpeace and the Dutch state will face each other in court on Tuesday afternoon with the campaign group arguing the Netherlands is not doing enough to protect the natural environment from the impact of excessive nitrogen.

The case is a “last chance to save the most vulnerable habitats because if nitrogen emissions don’t go down, we risk losing unique plants and animals,” Greenpeace said on Tuesday.

Nitrogen, Greenpeace said, is causing problems throughout the entire ecosystem, from “useful soil fungi to the badger population” and that means “the countryside is becoming increasingly quiet”.  

The campaign group wants to force the government to cut nitrogen emissions drastically and the courts to check the government’s approach to dealing with the problem against the European bird and habitat directives.

These directives are the cornerstones of EU nature protection policy and led to the creation of Natura 2000, a pan-European network of protected areas. The Netherlands has some 160 areas which fall under the Natura 2000 network.

Since the right-wing came to power this summer, it has become increasingly confused about what it intends to do about the nitrogen issue.

In September farm minister Femke Wiersma scrapped the previous administration’s plans to reduce nitrogen emissions and it is still unclear what she intends to replace them with.

A leaked and unconfirmed report in the hands of RTL Nieuws indicates the minister wants to spend €2.2 billion on innovation to reduce emissions and €1 billion to buy out farmers who want to close down their companies.

Wiersma has pledged to make more details public by the beginning of next month.