Extinction Rebellion (XR) Netherlands is back on the road to demand the Dutch government keeps its promise to end fossil subsidies. On Saturday February 3, XR will be blocking the road between the parliament and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate in the Hague for the 36th time. DiEM25 will be there to support and amplify the campaign.

In October of last year, the Dutch Stop Fossil Subsidies campaign scored a huge win: a large parliamentary majority voted in favour of drafting scenarios abolishing the 40 billion euros in yearly fossil subsidies. The parliament ordered the cabinet to come up with these scenarios before the beginning of 2024, however, as of today, there has not been any progress. To demand the government fulfils its promise, XR Netherlands will block the road again this Saturday (February 3) backed by DiEM25 and many other organizations.

According to calculations by the Dutch government itself, the sum of all fossil subsidies range from 39.7 to 46.4 billion euros per year. Most of these subsidies come in the form of tax deductions for companies that use incredible amounts of oil, gas and coal such as Tata Steel, Shell and KLM. These fossil giants are subject to a significantly lower energy tax rate than your average Dutch household, costing every person 5,000 euros per year in missed tax revenues.

This money can and should be spent differently according to Lucille Cornelius, spokesperson of DiEM25 in the Netherlands: “It’s ridiculous that we give away 40 billion euros to fossil-fuel-slurping multinationals every year. We should be spending this on organizing free public transport, cancelling student loans and a superfund which would pay workers to transition from a fossil economy to a green economy.”

Removing fossil subsidies and changing other pricing mechanisms, while important, are only small steps in the right direction. They are not a substitute for the large-scale investment in green industries, new technologies, and the transition towards low-carbon jobs and infrastructure.

Moreover, the 40 billion euros a year would not be enough to transition the Dutch economy away from fossil fuels before it is too late, let alone the European economy. To transform the European economy we need hundreds of billions of euros every year, raised, not through taxes, but through Green Bonds backed by the ECB. In other words, only a Green New Deal for Europe can guarantee a fast, fair, and comprehensive transition.

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