The Netherlands will not stop supporting the extraction of fossil fuels abroad

At the ongoing COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, the Netherlands has decided not to sign a pledge to stop financially supporting international fossil fuel projects. This was stated on Friday by the news server DutchNews.nl. The United States, Canada and 18 other countries pledged in Glasgow on Thursday to halt public funding for oil, gas and coal projects abroad by the end of next year. However, the Netherlands did not join this group of countries. According to the Ministry of Finance, the interim government cabinet considers this to be a "controversial" issue that should be decided by the future government. The composition of the future government is still unknown, as political negotiations on its composition are still ongoing. DutchNews.nl pointed out that environmental organizations called the Dutch decision not to support the initiative "bizarre" and considered Prime Minister Mark Rutte's call for the first day of the climate summit to be "empty words". Speaking in Glasgow, Rutte said that "climate change is a serious problem that requires serious action" and said the Netherlands' ambitions were clear: to gradually reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions to zero and to increase resilience to climate change. In that regard, the daily Handelsblad stated that the Netherlands' official involvement in the fossil fuel industry abroad took the form, in particular, of export credits granted to projects involving Shell, Van Oord, Boskalis and Heerema. However, at the climate summit, the Netherlands supported a proposal to halt investment in coal-fired power plants at home and abroad by the end of 2022. The country has plans to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2030.