A Government broad Program on Sustainable Development (KADO) is the main sustainable development policy program in Netherlands.

Source: Government of the Netherlands

The Dutch Cabinet bases its approach to sustainable development on the elaboration of six themes which are connected to global solidarity and directly related to climate change and biodiversity. Each of these six themes offers opportunities, but to actually realise these, policy choices have to be made. This is illustrated by an example for each theme:

1. For water and climate adaptation, steering spatial development offers the possibility of limiting the vulnerability of the Netherlands to flooding in the long term.

2. To realise the national emission reduction goals in 'Clean and Efficient', stringent European policy is necessary for appliances and cars.

3. For biofuels an important challenge is to map the indirect effects of land use, prices and development opportunities in more detail and include these aspects in the policy.

4. A lot still needs to be invested in the construction of infrastructure to capture and store CO2. On the short term it must be made clear whether this will be publicly or privately financed.

5. In the area of biodiversity, food and meat, there are concerns in the Netherlands about the effects of shifts in diet and changes in the meat and dairy production chain and international competitiveness. On the other hand the intended diet shifts do have positive effects on public health.

6. With respect to sustainable construction and urban development, from a technical point of view there is enough knowledge present or in development to render the built environment in the Netherlands energy neutral by 2050. To realise this, the present 'best practices' must become the standard.