Samenvatting

In her farewell editorial Helen Stout (member of the editorial board of this magazine from 1998 till 2020) addresses the contradictions in the climate policy of the Dutch city of Rotterdam. She notices that the new Dutch Climate Act is brimming with ambitions, but that there has not been much progress. The elaboration of the new law is yet to come. That has not prevented several municipalities from getting started. Some have been busy for years. For example, the municipality of Rotterdam launched the ‘Rotterdam Climate Initiative’ in 2007 with the aim of reducing CO₂ emissions by half by 2025. Against this background, the issues of coal transshipment in the port of Rotterdam, the autonomy of the port authority as a public limited company and the commissioning in 2015 and 2016 of two brand new coal-fired power stations on the Maasvlakte arise, which are discussed further in this editorial. The council’s failed attempt at intervention in renewing the leasehold illustrates the powerlessness of the municipality and shows the general feeling that the port authority is not an ‘ordinary’ company. The question arises of how interests other than economic ones can also be involved in the assessment of the port authority, assuming that reversal of its autonomy is not an option. We can use the constitutional framework for the institutional structure formed by the company’s articles of association. The Dutch General Administrative Law Act (Awb) could impose mandatory rules with regard to the content of the articles of association, like the obligation to broaden the objects stated under the articles of association.