Mark Harpers, the outgoing Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, says the city of Schiphol is coloring within the lines by purchasing the nitrogen rights.
It was announced yesterday that the airport has purchased nitrogen rights from two farms in the south of the Netherlands to help Rotterdam The Hague Airport obtain a nature permit. Although Schiphol's purchase has already met with a lot of criticism, the Netherlands' largest airport is doing nothing wrong, according to Harper's. “You know that if you need space for nitrogen in the Netherlands, in most cases it means you have to buy other companies, often farms. Schiphol is an independent city that can take on these kinds of Decisions.” Nordhollands Dagblad. Harpers stresses that Schiphol is an independent company and that the Dutch government has nothing to do with this deal. Christiane van der Waals, outgoing Minister of Nature and Nitrogen, agrees with Harpers. “It is a private agreement between two agricultural entrepreneurs and a chaebol company and this is allowed.”
Not amusing
Last year, Schiphol bought €20-25 million worth of nitrogen rights to free up more space for itself and Lelystad Airport (the airport that will no longer open). This has gone wrong with several parties. Today, everyone is still waiting for the deal. A spokesman for the province of Zuid Holland, who described the purchase as an “unwanted development”, said: “If the Schiphol Group buys the nitrogen rights from farms, we will not be able to accommodate the area of nitrogen emitted in our public nitrogen bank.”
