In an environmental exploration for the coming thirty years intended to form a basis for policy making, it says that of all EU countries the Netherlands has the biggest gap to bridge between the current emissions and its Kyoto targets. Rivm says further that half of the environmental pressure in the Netherlands is related to export. Export will also play a significant role in the growing direct and indirect energy use.
More efforts are also needed t improve air quality, the institute says.
This will lead to a growing number of earlier deaths related to air pollution as the older people, more sensitive to pollution, become a larger proportion of the total. Silent areas are becoming more scarce and remote. In a separate report published today, Rivm looks back over the last thirty years of environmental policy. It concludes that environmental pressures have declined in absolute terms. This has contributed to worsening environmental trends such as increasing CO2 emissions and disappearing plants.