Land-Based Mitigation Technologies for the Netherlands
As part of the LANDMARC deliverable “D2.1: National Narratives” the Netherlands team has been refining the technology focus of the case study.
The Netherlands is a highly developed, small country, in which much of the territory lays at almost sea level, resulting in a high presence of wetlands. It has a high population density and intensive farming activity, intended to cover both domestic and international demand. This results in high land competition, with a small share of forest and natural areas. Both agricultural and livestock sectors are highly technified, but there is space for improvement in carbon sequestration. The Netherlands also committed to increasing its forest coverage by 10% by 2030. Considering all these characteristics, the selected LMTs in the Netherlands are:
Peatland management: the drainage of wetlands has occurred for over 100 years in the Netherlands to make the land suitable for agriculture. As a consequence, the oxidation of previously soaked lands emits CO2 to the atmosphere, apart from creating further problems such as the sinking of land. By rewetting peatlands, the emission of GHG is avoided, as well as the sinking of the territory. Whereas rewetted peatlands may not be suitable for conventional agriculture, certain crops can still grow here.
Forestry: forest area accounts for 8% of The Netherland’s total area, and 55% of these forests are own by the public administration. With such a high land competition, it is not easy to carry out afforestation projects. However, the Dutch government committed to increasing the forest surface by 10% by the year 2030 (afforestation). Another solution to increase tree coverage (therefore increasing carbon sequestration) is to integrate trees in non-forest areas, such as cultivated lands (agroforestry)
BECCS: As a consequence of the intensive livestock farming activity in The Netherlands, the production of manure is about 75 MTons/year. This manure can be digested to produce biofuels, and the solid residues resulting from this process can be used as fertilizers, fixing part of their carbon contents in the soil. By doing this, some CH4 emissions from manure handling are avoided. It also decreases the demand for fossil fuels. It is estimated that 2 to 5 Mt CO2/year can be avoided by the implementation of BECCS.
