Manufacturing Policy effects by sector

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3.4.2 Built environment

The built environment sector comprises a large and heterogeneous group of energy consumers. Individually, their consumption is limited and there is little incentive to save energy: households, the trade and service sector and the public sector. An evaluation found that compulsory elements in the policy had the most effect. Energy tax produced the greatest energy saving. Consumer response to the change in energy prices is limited but since energy tax is the only instrument that affects all households it produces a high saving Joosen et al., 2004. The combination of grants and European minimum efficiency standards for domestic appliances and products was so successful in the period 1995-2002 that most white goods are now energy efficient A label Joosen et al., 2004. A third compulsory instrument is the minimum energy performance standard for buildings. The Energy Performance Coefficient EPC was first adopted in the Building Decree in 1995 and has since been tightened up on several occasions. In consequence, new houses and office buildings are designed considerably more energy efficiently that before 1995 Joosen et al., 2004. Nearly all Dutch grant schemes for the built environment ended in about 2002. The European Commission did not increase the number of appliances subject to energy efficiency standards until 2005. The introduction of the standards made slow progress. The Clean and Efficient working programme proposed options for more compulsory policy in the built environment. An example is the requirement introduced in 2008 that when a house or other building is sold the owner must provide the buyer or tenant with an energy efficiency label. At present, energy efficiency labels do not play a significant role in the housing market. In 2008, just 10 of house sellers provided new owners with an energy label VROM CBS, 2010. The More with Less Agreement introduced for the built environment in 2008 was expected to make a significant contribution to energy saving. It has since become clear, however, that it will produce far fewer savings than the government had estimated. The target was to save 100 PJ but the maximum feasible saving is 44 PJ Daniëls et al., 2010, p. 52. 47

3.4.3 Transport

The transport sector includes road traffic, railways, inland shipping and domestic flights. In this sector, cars and heavy goods vehicles are responsible for 75 of energy consumption. Agreements made at European level with manufacturers regarding the energy efficiency of new vehicles will have a significant impact on the achievement of the Dutch goals. A national instrument of which a great deal was expected was road pricing. 28 This instrument has been discussed since 1999 but has never resulted in a concrete measure. In the coalition agreement of September 2010, the current government stated that it would not introduce road pricing but would study whether an increase in duties could turn fixed costs into variable costs. It was subsequently decided in November 2010 that duties would not be increased. According to the European Commission, voluntary agreements with car manufacturers have not had the desired effect. An EU regulation was therefore passed in 2008 with a proposal to set a ceiling on the CO 2 emissions of new cars European Commission, Regulation no. 4432009, 2009. The ceiling was set at 130 grams of CO 2 per kilometre in 2015. When preparing the Clean and Efficient working programme in 2007, the Dutch government had anticipated the European standard being tightened up to 80 grams of CO 2 per kilometre in 2020. The proposed EU target for 2020 is 95 grams of CO 2 per kilometre. The European voluntary agreement on the maximum CO 2 emissions by light commercial vehicles will also be incorporated into a European regulation. Sales of energy efficient cars are being encouraged by a range of fiscal measures. An evaluation of the incentive scheme for energy efficient cars in 2002 and 2003 found that the incentive in combination with car energy labels had had an effect PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2005. No instruments were applied between 2003 and 2006 to encourage the purchase of energy efficient cars. In 2006, the tax on buying a new car was adjusted so that a lower rate was paid on more economical cars. A CO 2 surcharge on car and motorcycle tax, known as the gas guzzler tax, was introduced in 2008 for very uneconomical cars. Furthermore, the tax on benefit in kind was significantly reduced for very economical company cars and increased for other company cars CBS et al., 2010c. 28 This instrument is also known as road usage charging or congestion charging. 48 Interestingly, some of the technical gains made on vehicles, such as the development of more efficient engines and improved aerodynamics, have been offset by other characteristics of new vehicles, such as greater weight, engine power and cylinder capacity, which have increased fuel consumption and thus CO 2 emissions. The average power of a new car in the Netherlands increased by about 20 and the average weight by about 11 between 1998 and 2006. Instruments were also introduced to influence transport behaviour. Alternatives to cars have been encouraged by tax schemes for commuters, such as an additional tax liability for the private use of a company car. The New Driving information campaign to encourage more economical driving was introduced in 1999 and handed over to industry associations, consumer organisations and market parties, united in The New Driving Network, in 2010. Flight tax was introduced in 2008 but was abolished a year later owing to opposition from Dutch airports, airlines and travel organisations. In March 2009, we issued a report entitled The Environmental Impact of Road Transport. In it, we concluded that the impact of Dutch climate policy in the transport sector had been disappointing as the intended CO 2 reductions had not been achieved Netherlands Court of Audit, 2009b. Since 2009, the average CO 2 emission of new cars has declined, partly because of the greater availability of more efficient vehicles and partly because of the higher demand for smaller more economical cars. The latter was due in part to Dutch tax measures to promote the sale of economical cars but the economic crisis and high fuel prices in the first half of 2008 will also have been a factor in the increased demand CBS et al., 2010c.

3.4.4 Agriculture and horticulture sector

In the agriculture and horticulture sector, a large number of businesses are together responsible for a small proportion of total energy consumption in the Netherlands. There is a concentration of energy consumption within the sector: greenhouse horticulture is responsible for 80 of consumption in the sector. In greenhouse horticulture, energy costs represent a relatively large proportion of total production costs. Energy savings are attractive to these businesses because they result in direct and substantial cost savings.