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Our Dutch correspondent Erik te Roller looks at the latest Dutch climate spat and explains why opponents of climate spending should think again.

“A group of scientists has called on the government not to invest billions of euros in the fight against climate change, because that doesn’t help anyway,” the RTL4 news channel reported on 29 December.

This controversial viewpoint was put forward by emeritus professor Guus Berkhout, formerly of Delft University of Technology. Berkhout told an astonished audience that there was no guarantee that lower carbon emissions would reduce global warming, and that “extremely expensive measures” should therefore not be taken.