environmental law

COP30 will kick off on 10 November in Belém, a Brazilian city and gateway to the Amazon. Expectations are high because it coincides with the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, whose goal of limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 °C was shattered in 2024. In addition, this year countries must present a new version of their measures to combat climate change in a turbulent geopolitical context, marked by the Trump administration's abandonment of the climate agenda.

In 2050, the total volume of waste electrical and electronic equipment in Europe will reach between 12.5 and 19 million tonnes, compared to 10.7 million tonnes – around 20 kilograms per person – in 2022, according to the report 2050 Critical Raw Materials Outlook for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. Of this volume, only 54% was collected and treated correctly in 2022. Furthermore, of the one million metric tonnes of critical raw materials such as copper, aluminium and silicon present in this waste, less than half was successfully recovered, according to the report's estimates.

Today at 3:00 PM CEST, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the principal judicial body of the United Nations, will issue its advisory opinion on the obligations of states in relation to climate change and the legal consequences of those obligations. The case stems from a Pacific youth initiative, taken up by the small island nation of Vanuatu, which led a coalition of 132 countries to request an opinion. It is expected to determine whether large, polluting countries should be held accountable for damages caused to small island nations.

Following the agreement reached a few months ago between the European Parliament and Council, in today’s plenary session the European Parliament has approved a provisional political agreement with EU countries that includes new requirements to improve air quality by 2030. The agreement sets stricter targets and limits for several pollutants that have a serious impact on health, including particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) and SO2 (sulfur dioxide). Before being published in the Official Journal of the European Union, the law now must be adopted by the Council. EU countries will have two years to implement the new standards

In 2022, 62 million tonnes of e-waste were generated worldwide, a figure 82% higher than the 34 million tonnes recorded in 2010, according to a United Nations report. The 2022 figure represents an average of 7.8 kilograms per capita per year worldwide, compared to 19.6 kg in Spain. Only 22.3% of this amount of global e-waste was documented as properly collected and recycled, says the Global E-waste Monitor 2024. 

A study based on data from the Environmental Justice Atlas says that 81 women were murdered worldwide for their environmental activism: one of them in Spain, 7 in Colombia, 5 in Honduras and 4 in Peru, among other countries. The study, published in Nature Sustainability, says that violence against women defenders is concentrated in conflicts around mining, agribusiness and industrial projects in the Global South. The first author of the study is Dalena Tran, a researcher at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. 

The Participation Council of Doñana has analysed this Monday in an extraordinary meeting the bill presented in the Andalusian Parliament that aims to extend the legal irrigation in the area. The Andalusian Government maintains its support for the new regulation, which will begin its parliamentary debate tomorrow, Wednesday, with the proposal to take the bill into consideration. For his part, the director of the Doñana Biological Station, Eloy Revilla, in his speech to the Council warned of the general deterioration of the lagoon system and pointed out that "the current exploitation of the aquifer is not sustainable". "Spain has been condemned by the European Court of Justice for failing to comply with its obligations under the Water Framework Directive and the Habitat Directive," he said. The Ministry for Ecological Transition has warned that it will take the law to the Constitutional Court.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has condemned Spain for failing to take the necessary measures to prevent continued non-compliance with air pollution limits in Madrid and the metropolitan area of Barcelona between 2010 and 2018. It also includes Baix Llobregat between 2010 and 2017.

Today the European Commission proposed revising the air and water quality directives in line with World Health Organisation recommendations. These would include more than halving the annual limit value for fine particulate matter (PM_2.5).

The Plenary of the Senate has approved this afternoon the Proposition of Law for the recognition of legal personality to the Mar Menor lagoon and its basin. The law, which was approved in Congress last July, comes from a Popular Legislative Initiative signed by more than 600,000 people.