Abstract

Dense population, high nitrogen inputs in agriculture, large chemical industry and a large traffic volume make the Netherlands the most nitrogen-intensive economy in the world. Because of this intensive use of nitrogen, the Netherlands faces difficulties achieving national and European environmental objectives. The present policy package can be characterised as extensive and complex. It is against this background that sources, flows and effects of nitrogen on environment, health, and climate have been studied in an integrated context. The report discusses the effectiveness of current and potential policy options. An analysis of the present nitrogen policy measures shows them to be effective in reducing individual flows and effects of nitrogen. The implementation of new policy measures increases the risk that opportunities will be missed or that unexpected counterproductive impacts will occur. Therefore, new nitrogen measures should ideally be developed within the integrated-knowledge framework of sources, flows and effects of nitrogen and policy measurements. For this reason an integrated approach for developing nitrogen policies in the broad context of sectoral and environmental policies is desirable.