The cabinet is aiming to develop a new strategy to combat nitrogen-based pollution within two months, Prime Minister Dick Schoof told reporters on Friday.

However, he declined to go into detail or comment on the fact that two coalition parties – the far-right PVV and the pro-countryside BBB – want to scrap the current rules instead.

Earlier this week, judges ordered the government to work on a plan to cut nitrogen-based pollution by 50% in sensitive parts of the countryside by 2030 or face a €10 million fine. The target was drawn up by earlier administrations.

The situation, Schoof said at his weekly press conference, is not quite “mission impossible”.

“Otherwise, I would not have gotten started,” he said. “But it is a very far-reaching issue. It has an impact on many sectors and society as a whole.”

For example, ministers may have to halt much-needed residential projects due to the nitrogen they release, or drastically reduce the size of the country’s livestock industry, experts say.

Ministers will meet to begin work on Tuesday, Schoof said.

Since the right-wing government 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.

The biggest sources of nitrogen-based pollution are fossil fuels, used in vehicles and energy generation, as well as farming, through the use of artificial and manure-based fertiliser.