What Visiting the Netherlands Made Me Realize About Achieving Clean Air

Last month, I wrote an opinion piece about the air quality situation in the Philippines. As I mentioned in that article, I’m mixed-race, coming from both the Philippines and the Netherlands. Recently, I had the chance to visit the Netherlands again after three years. I spent a day in Amsterdam, and instantly, I was reminded of how clean the air felt there.

Amsterdam Centraal Station at night

When you’re in the city, you can cycle for hours without covering your nose or wearing a mask, sit at a café without exhaust fumes drifting past, or open your windows without worrying about what you’re letting in. I don’t want to make it sound like there is no air pollution in the Netherlands, because that is of course not the case. Instead, I wanted to highlight how cleaner air is something that well-designed structures and policies make possible.

When I wrote my article about the Philippines, I had nothing but criticism for the government’s lack of action when it comes to air quality, and even made a brief comparison to the situation in the Netherlands. In this piece, I would like to explore the very laws and systems that allow residents in Dutch cities to breathe cleaner air.

The laws that shape cleaner cities

In the Netherlands, the government tracks air pollution levels across the country yearly and makes that data available to the public through their annual Air Quality Report. When results show that targets of the National Air Quality Cooperation Programme are not being met, extra measures must follow either at the national or municipal level. This ensures that action isn’t optional when standards fall short.

On a local level, there are also several Low Emission Zones in cities such as Amsterdam. In these zones, older diesel vehicles can’t enter certain parts of the city. By 2030, the plan is to ban all petrol and diesel cars from the city center entirely. While it might sound drastic, it’s been introduced gradually, giving people time to adjust. This is a stark contrast to the jeepney modernization program in the Philippines, where drivers are expected to shoulder the cost of brand-new vehicles in a shorter period of time.

What stands out the most, however, are how these laws are held to account. When the Dutch government failed to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets, the Urgenda Foundation took the case to court and won. The ruling required the state to take stronger action to cut emissions and protect public health. For most countries, this kind of accountability is rare.

Why these laws actually work

Yes, these policies exist, but the reason why they’re effective is because they’re supported by infrastructure that makes them easy to implement. The Netherlands has an efficient public transport system that consists of trains, trams, buses, and metros that are interconnected and run frequently.

And then there’s the cycling infrastructure. Bike lanes are built into the design of every city, are separated from car traffic, and are well-maintained. This makes it one of the easiest ways to get around.

Another factor that plays a big role is good urban planning. Dutch cities are incredibly walkable. Neighborhoods are mixed-use, so you can live, work, and run errands in the same area without needing to drive. Public spaces are designed with people in mind, not cars. All of this makes it easier to reduce emissions because the need for vehicles is lower to begin with.

It’s not perfect, but it’s accountable

Again, I want to emphasize that the Netherlands isn’t without its problems. There are still communities that struggle with air pollution and policies that don’t always work as intended or aren’t as inclusive. But what I noticed is that when problems arise, people have ways to respond, and those responses are often acknowledged (at least more than in the Philippines). When citizens speak out, some action is taken, and conversations continue until something changes.

This is exactly what governance should look like: being responsive to the concerns of citizens. When there are issues, people should be allowed to question or challenge them, and see that their voices lead somewhere.

In the Philippines, that kind of setup often feels absent. People raise concerns, but rarely see a concrete follow-through. Controversial policies are often pushed through even when people criticize or question them. There’s no real mechanism for people to challenge decisions or demand better, which is what makes the fight for clean air and other important issues exhausting.

Clean air starts with systems that work

Bringing it back to the topic of air quality – I’m not saying that the Philippines should strive to adopt all the air quality laws and measures the Netherlands has. I understand that the two countries are different, and what works in a city like Amsterdam wouldn’t automatically work in Manila.

But I do think it’s worth asking: what would it look like if systems in the Philippines were built to support each other? And here’s what I mean by systems supporting each other: When you build good public transport, fewer people need cars. When fewer people drive, air quality improves. And if you design cities that are walkable, pollution drops even further. Each piece supports the next.

In the Philippines, we’re just not there yet. As I mentioned in my previous article, public transport is unreliable, bike lanes are technically carved out of existing vehicular lanes, and cities sprawl outward with no plan for how people will move through them. This means that many people who can afford a vehicle are more motivated to buy one. And then one thing leads to another: more vehicles mean worse traffic, and worse traffic means more emissions.

The systems don’t support each other and actually compound the problems. Even if the Philippine government passed the exact same air quality laws as the Netherlands tomorrow, they just wouldn’t work. Not because Filipinos don’t want clean air, but because you can’t enforce emission standards when people have limited alternatives. You can’t create low-emission zones when there’s no reliable alternative to cars, and policy alone can’t function without the infrastructure to sustain it.

The main thing I want to point out is that clean air doesn’t come from having the strictest laws or the most advanced technology. It comes from systems that work together. Once those pieces start working together, progress follows.