By Jan Douwe Krist & Louis Brady

June 25th, 2022 – At the beginning of June, the Dutch government gave a permit for a new offshore gas extraction site 20km north of the small island of Schiermonnikoog.

Islanders have expressed their resistance to the plans and were backed up last week by 400 scientists who criticised the move in an open letter to the government. There are concerns about the misalignment between drilling for new gas and national climate policy, as well as the potential effects of the project on the ecology of the Wadden Sea.

The Netherlands aims to stop using gas almost entirely by 2050 but the war in Ukraine and resulting gas shortages have reignited the debate about the extraction of natural gas.