Ineke Dezentjé Hamming-Bluemink will advise the committee on whether proposed agreements between the government and companies qualify to be further developed into concrete binding custom agreements.

In addition to the appointment of the new chair, 2 new committee members are joining: Gerard van Harten and Els de Groot. Van Harten was previously a figurehead of the Top Sector Chemistry and chairman of Dow Benelux. De Groot is currently working as a commissioner at Enexis and has already acted as an independent expert for the committee in recent years. Members Tanja Cuppen, Pieter Boot, and Laurens de Vries have been reappointed to the committee.

The committee is also bidding farewell to Tom Büchner as a member alongside Carolien Gehrels. They have dedicated themselves over the past 2 years to accelerating sustainability efforts among large industrial companies.

This committee provides independent advice on proposed custom agreements between the government and large industrial companies aimed at ambitious CO2 reduction and improvement of the living environment. The committee issued advice in June 2023 on the Letter of Intent (Joint Letter of Intent, JLoI) between the government and Nobian, and in October 2023 on the incidental subsidy application from Yara Sluiskil. Binding custom agreements have now been made with Nobian. The advisory committee assesses JLoIs, after which the agreements are further developed into a legally binding custom agreement. The committee evaluates whether plans are efficient, feasible, measurable, and aligned with the goals of the custom approach.

With the appointment of Dezentjé Hamming-Bluemink as chair and the (re)appointment of the other members in the committee, there is sufficient expertise to advise on complex custom processes in the coming period, with attention to ambition and feasibility.

The custom approach supports companies in their sustainability challenges. To qualify for custom agreements, a company must be able to significantly reduce CO2 emissions, namely more than the reduction path of the national CO2 tax by 2030. This is also referred to as additional CO2 reduction. The approach in a nutshell:

• Primarily focused on reducing CO2 emissions at the largest industrial companies
• Additionally, agreements are made where possible about a healthy and safe living environment.
• Reciprocity is the starting point. The sustainability challenges require efforts from both companies and the government.
• The approach consists of 3 phases: Expressions of Principles, Joint Letter of Intent, binding custom agreements.