The Climate, Land, Energy, Water and Food Nexus Challenge in a Land Scarce Country: Innovations in the Netherlands

Davine N G Janssen,Dennis Fokkinga,Nico Polman,Vincent Linderhof,Duarte De Mesquita E Sousa,Eunice Pereira Ramos,Chrysi Laspidou

doi:10.3390/su122410491

Abstract

The Netherlands has the ambitious target of transitioning to a low-carbon economy by 2050. One factor that may constrain this progress, however, is the large spatial requirements of renewable energy technologies, and resulting competition for land through interlinkages between the Climate (C), Land (L), Energy (E), Water (W) and Food (F) domains—the CLEWF nexus. This study aims at identifying innovations that can improve the performance of the nexus by addressing the land scarcity constraint while supporting the low-carbon economy transition. A framework for the identification of potential innovations applicable in the nexus context was developed and applied. It is derived from a Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) analysis of land scarcity in the Dutch nexus and a stock-taking benchmarking analysis of European countries. An inventory of innovations was prepared based on several classifications of innovations, collecting examples from the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Latvia and Sweden. Three innovations were identified as particularly promising: district heating, Energy Service Companies and peak shaving through water pumping. Furthermore, the DPSIR framework was also used to identify overarching societal elements common to countries that successfully implemented sustainable innovations. These were found to relate to long-term political commitments, geopolitical and economic drivers, and pioneering approaches building from and towards national strengths.

Highlights

The Paris’ United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreement, signed in 2015, has set the scene for climate policy globally
This analysis supported the selection of five countries to be co6 nofs2i7dered as sources of innovation for the Netherlands
Five innovations are directly applicable to all three domains simultaneously

Summary

Introduction

The Paris’ United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreement, signed in 2015, has set the scene for climate policy globally. Its central aim of keeping the global temperature rise “well below 2 ◦C” in this century [1] puts pressure on all signatory countries to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from, among other sectors, energy production and use [2]. The European Commission presented the European Green Deal, an unprecedentedly ambitious policy strategy setting out the path to climate neutrality by 2050. In the Netherlands, the Climate Agreement (Klimaatakkoord) [4] is the leading policy for reducing GHG emissions, more domains of policy are relevant [5]. At the end of 2019, for instance, the attention of policy makers has been drawn to the nitrogen emissions policy due to the immediate impacts of exceeded emission limits prohibiting the construction of new buildings and infrastructure [6]

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