AMSTERDAM (AP) — The outgoing Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, told delegates at the COP28 United Nations climate conference his country is “committed to accelerating our efforts” to tackle climate change.
Whether that happens in this nation — large parts of which are under sea level and protected by dikes — depends on talks that are underway to form a new ruling coalition.
Rutte’s potential successor wants to trash the country’s climate policies.
One of far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders’ pledges ahead of the Nov. 22 election his PVV party won set alarm bells ringing at environmental groups.
“The climate law, the climate deal and all other climate measures will go straight into the shredder,” his PVV party’s election manifesto said. “No wasting billions on useless climate hobbies, but more money for our people,” it added.
“Wilders really denies climate change as something that the Netherlands should worry about. Which is interesting given that a large part of the country is below sea level,” Rem Korteweg, a senior research fellow at the Clingendael Institute think tank, said after the…
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