The Netherlands is no front-runner in Europe regarding sustainable transport policy. In this paper, the position of the Netherlands in Europe has been explored, based on the Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism (TERM). TERM is the official monitoring system of the European Environment Agency (EEA) and provides insight in the main developments in transport and environment for both the EU as a whole and its individual Member States. The most important conclusions of this assessment are that the Netherlands lags behind with respect to large neighboring countries in reducing GHG emissions of transport, has the highest excise duty on petrol but belongs with regard to diesel excise duty to the European middle group, charges lorries relatively little by kilometer and has relatively little charges or taxes for the internalisation of external costs. The Netherlands has still a number one position with the high share of the bicycle in passenger transport, which is worth to preserve. There are still many opportunities in The Netherlands to tackle problems with air quality, climate change and congestion. These chances lie mainly in the field of transport pricing, in particular higher diesel excise duty, more differentiation to fuel consumption or emission level of pollutants or CO2 (for all modes), and the introduction of a road charging scheme. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting