NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) in 2017, the year it was launched, and announced a coal phaseout date of 2029. The current Dutch coal fleet is relatively young: all three remaining plants began operating in 2015 and 2016 and are therefore expected to operate for less than half of their design lifetime. In 2019, the government adopted a legal ban on electricity production from coal, set to take effect by 2030.

The Netherlands has pursued increasingly stringent climate policies. The Dutch Supreme Court confirmed a ruling requiring the government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020 relative to 1990 levels, and in early 2020 the government proposed 54 additional measures, including the early closure of a remaining coal plant and the downscaling of coal generation. Later that year, the Climate Minister called on coal plant operators to assess the costs of plant closures.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Dutch government lifted a cap in 2022 that had restricted coal-fired power plants to operating at no more than 35% of their maximum output. Despite this short-term increase, the proportion of the Netherlands’ energy needs met by coal declined markedly , and in 2023 the country was actively working to build an international coalition toward the global phaseout of fossil fuel subsidies. However in the first half of 2025, coal-fired electricity generation surged by about 72% compared with the same period in 2024, contributing to a 7% increase in overall electricity production, as fossil fuels compensated for lower wind power output.

The Netherlands’ national coal phaseout is situated within the European Union’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (“NDC 3.0”), submitted in November 2025, which introduces an indicative 2035 emissions reduction target, reinforces the phase-down of unabated coal power, and reaffirms the objective of climate neutrality by 2050.