Last November, Dutch newspaper Trouw published an article on the question: “How transparent is Dutch climate financing?” According to Trouw, this is ‘surprisingly easy to follow’ with the help of the ‘climate dashboard’ that the MFA has created.

During the climate change summit in Azerbaijan, Trouw wrote about the climate financing of the Netherlands. The truck driver with whom the journalist from Trouw hitched a ride to the summit was quoted as questioning whether that money is being put to good use. Trouw writes:

“What actually happens with that money for climate support? Truck driver Wim Hakvoort, with whom Trouw rode to the climate summit, was sceptical. He feared that climate money for poorer countries often ‘sticks to the fingers’ or disappears into the pockets of corrupt politicians, and that it does not reach the people who are affected by floods or drought, for example.

Hakvoort first wanted to know whether this money was being put to good use. Only then could he form an opinion on the question of whether or not his tax money should be deposited in the climate fund. Trouw promised him to find out.”

Trouw did this using the publicly available climate dashboard made by the MFA. The journalist and two experts who are quoted in the article are positively surprised. Annemarie Drahmann of Leiden University says: ‘it is very good that the government is increasingly proactively making these types of money flows public’. The article also discusses how much money actually benefits a solution for climate problems in developing countries instead of directors’ salaries and Western companies. The article can be read on the Trouw website (paywall, in Dutch).

Screenshots from the article in Trouw.