The Environment and Planning Act (Omgevingswet) is a framework law that includes everything that is part of the “physical environment” (“leefomgeving”), and has come into force on January 1, 2024. The overall objective of this Act in relation to society (Article 1.3) is “ensuring sustainable development, the habitability of the land and to protecting and enhancing this environment”, interrelated with the objective to achieve and maintain a safe and healthy physical environment and good environmental quality, because of “the intrinsic value of the natural world”. Moreover, the Act includes the aim of countering climate change, protecting the environment and nature, and safeguarding health. Overall, the purpose of the Environment and Planning Act is to create a more coherent regulatory landscape for the physical environment by modernising, harmonising and combining laws into one single Act, which makes for five major improvements:
<ol>
<li>More transparent environment and planning law</li>
<li>A more coherent and balanced approach to the physical environment</li>
<li>Room for customisation on the local level</li>
<li>Better and faster decision-making</li>
<li>Increased participation and incentive to increase the alignment of interests of different stakeholders, e.g. municipalities, developers and other actors influencing the physical environment through their activities</li>
</ol>
The Environment and planning act states that the physical environment shall in any event include:
<ul>
<li>buildings, infrastructure, water systems, water, soil, air, landscapes, the natural environment, cultural heritage, and world heritage</li>
</ul>
Overall, it (partially) repeals 26 laws and combines them into one single Act, including the Crisis Recovery Act, the Environmental Management Act, and parts of the Water Act. The Act consists of 6 core instruments that allow governments to write and implement policies, regulate activities, and implement projects, aimed at using and protecting the physical environment.
Among these is the Environment Vision, a strategic plan outlining the future aim for the development of the physical environment, which needs to be created by all government levels (national, provincial, and municipal level). An additional instrument are the decentralised rules, in which all decentralised governments have 1 regulation for the physical environment in their territory, e.g. frameworks for assessing permits or rules for activities of citizens and companies. The Act also creates a digital environment (“Omgevingsloket”) connecting all governments, and functions as a one-stop-shop for all applications to permits, zoning plan rules, and details on the quality of the physical environment. Moreover, the Act reduces the previous 60 Orders in Council to 4 Orders in Council, and narrows down 75 ministerial regulations to one ‘Environment Regulation’. It includes the following four Orders in Council. As part of the legislative package in introduces the following four decrees:
<ol>
<li>The Environment Decree of the Netherlands (Omgevingsbesluit)</li>
<li>The Environmental Quality Decree of the Netherlands (Besluit kwaliteit leefomgeving, Bkl)</li>
<li>The Environmental Activities Decree of the Netherlands (Besluit activiteiten leefomgeving, Bal)</li>
<li>The Environment Buildings Decree of the Netherlands (Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving, Bbl)</li>
</ol>

Important themes within the Environment and Planning Act: Nitrogen
The government is combining nitrogen measures with other measures to improve the quality of water, soil, and nature, and fulfil the Dutch climate obligations. Measures are therefore introduced for 1) industry, 2) agriculture, 3) transport and the 4) construction sector in order to reduce nitrogen deposition and improve the quality of Natura 2000 areas. The Nitrogen Reduction and Nature Improvement Act previously regulated the structural nitrogen approach. With the Environment and Planning Act this law is repealed, and the following components become part of the system of the Environment and Planning Act:
<ul>
<li>Result-demanding environmental values for nitrogen deposition on nitrogen-sensitive Natura 2000 areas (Article 2.15a on ambient values for nitrogen)</li>
<ul>
<li>2025: 40% of the nitrogen sensitive Natura-2000 areas must be below the critical deposition value (255 mole per hectare) in 2025</li>
<li>2030: 50% of the nitrogen sensitive Natura-2000 areas must be below the critical deposition value in 2030</li>
<li>2035: 74% of the nitrogen sensitive Natura-2000 areas must be below the critical deposition value in 2035</li>
</ul>
<li>Obligatory national nitrogen reduction and nature improvement programme</li>
<li>Monitoring and adjustment system</li>
</ul>

Environment and Planning Act of the Netherlands (Omgevingswet)

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Consolidated Environment and Planning Act 2023

Amended/Updated

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Compulsory, required payments to the government that are levied more-or-less in proportion to the services provided. Fees and charges range from entrance fees to national parks, charges on land-based sewage discharge.

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

Actions to adapt human health, healthcare systems and well-being to climate change.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

Any compulsory, unrequited payment to the government levied on corporations or individuals. This can be for environmental reasons, such as introducing a Carbon tax to set a price that emitters must pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

Activities that involve the cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for food, fibre, and other products essential for human life and industry.

Activities that relate to the production of goods and services from forests.

This sector involves the distribution, treatment, and conservation of water resources.

Consolidated Environment and Planning Act 2023

Policy instrument

Risk

Climate justice

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance