Dutch industry and households managed to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by 1.6% last year compared with 2023, but this is far lower than the 7% drop recorded in the two previous years.

And although emissions were down overall, industry emissions actually rose, according to figures from national health agency RIVM and statistics office CBS.

Compared with the baseline of 1990, emissions were down 37%. According to the Dutch climate law, emissions must be cut by 55% compared with 1990 in five years’ time.

The increase in solar and wind power helped the electricity generation sector to cut its emissions by 3%, while transport and train-related emissions fell by 6%. However, industrial emissions, which account for 33% of the total, were up 1.5%.

Last year, the government’s environmental assessment agency PBL said the Netherlands is extremely unlikely to achieve its climate targets, and the likelihood is becoming more remote as time passes.

The current plans would make a reduction of 44% to 52% the maximum achievable, the PBL said in October, adding that no sectors are currently on target.

It also said the right-wing administration’s plans to increase motorway speed limits, scrap measures to reduce car use, make solar panels less attractive, and leave energy taxes unchanged will not help.

Climate minister Sophie Hermans told MPs on Tuesday that she is currently working on new plans which will make reaching the targets more likely and hopes to present them this spring.

But during the debate, it became clear that the four-party coalition is still divided, and even Hermans’s own party, the VVD, appeared to soften its support.

VVD MP Silvio Erkens called for a change in direction with more opportunities for “clean fossil fuel extraction”, referring to North Sea gas reserves, despite cabinet commitments to phase out the use of natural gas.

Hermans, he said, should grant more licences to oil firms that want to drill there and called for a greater sense of realism. The focus, he said, should be on “making sure energy bills are affordable.”