ABSTRACT
The Dutch electricity system is of medium size in the EU. However, it has some special characteristics that make this case study of particular interest. The past decade has been one of very economic growth for the energy-intensive Dutch economy, leading to rapid increases in emissions, despite pre-Kyoto climate policies. Without many options to reduce emissions domestically, the host of COP-6 decided to use the Kyoto mechanisms extensively; however, this also showed the host’s commitment to the mechanisms – important for the Umbrella Group countries – while still inside the EU’s supplementarity caps of a maximum 50% of reductions coming from emissions trading. The highly interconnected electricity system reduces the policy options to those that do not make the industry uncompetitive compared with imports. At the same time few possibilities exist for increased use of renewables (because of the high population density) or cogeneration or natural gas (because of their already high penetration rates).
