Together with Wageningen Social & Economic Research (WSER) and Naturalis Biodiversity Center, CE Delft has assessed the biodiversity impacts of 102 financial schemes of the Dutch central government over the past two years. These schemes include subsidies, tax relief measures and other financial incentives. The assessment was carried out with the support of independent experts. The report can be found HERE (only available in Dutch) and was submitted to the Dutch House of Representatives on 21 May 2026 (only available in Dutch) by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature.
Results The study identified several schemes across the food sector, industry, aviation, road transport and residential construction that have negative impacts on biodiversity. In particular, fossil fuel subsidies were found to have negative effects, including indirect impacts through climate change, which is itself a major driver of biodiversity loss. The study also shows that tax relief measures are generally larger in financial scale than subsidies, despite the lower number of tax-related schemes.
This study forms a first step in identifying government financial schemes with potentially harmful biodiversity impacts. The next step is for ministries to improve as many of these schemes as possible before 2030.
Method The biodiversity impacts were assessed against the main biodiversity pressure factors:
The analysed schemes amount to approximately EUR 75 billion annually. Of the 102 schemes assessed, 66 were examined for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature (LVVN), 30 for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W), 8 for the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning (VRO), and 25 for the Ministry of Climate and Green Growth (KGG).
Background and role CE Delft The study was commissioned by these same ministries to support the fulfilment of the Target 18 under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Within the consortium, CE Delft led the analysis of the schemes under I&W, VRO and KGG. This included schemes related to the circular economy, vehicle taxation, motorway investments, aviation, housing, energy and industry. WSER led the assessment of the LVVN schemes.
Similar studies are currently being conducted in other EU Member States and OECD countries, and the work was coordinated with these countries, the European Union and the OECD. CE Delft previously developed the methodology for this work in the report Assessing biodiversity effects of public financial incentives: A methodology for the Dutch government. The methodological protocol used in the study was developed together by WSER and CE Delft.