The Dutch Cabinet has the ambition of making the Netherlands one of the cleanest and economical energy countries of Europe. In the work programme 'Clean and Efficient: New energy for the climate' the Cabinet describes the ambitions for projects such as, energy cutbacks, sustainable energy and Carbon dioxide (CO2) underground storage. The specific goals of the project 'Clean and Efficient' include:
- A reduction in greenhouse gases, in particular CO2, of 30% by 2020 in comparison to 1990
- Doubling the rate of energy cutbacks in the coming years, from 1% now to 2% per year
- Increasing the proportion of sustainable energy by 2020, from around 2% now to 20% of all enery used
The goal of CO2-capture and storage has another positive effect. Capture and storage is the capturing and storage of carbon dioxide gas in the underground. This carbon dioxide gas is the result of the burning of fossile fuels. CO2-storage makes it possible to use fossile fuels whilst contributing less to the greenhouse effect. Depleted oil and gas fields, and water retaining levels, could be used for the storage of CO2.
