Land

Spain’s nuclear regulator this week withheld authorisation for a uranium ore processing plant, effectively killing off long-running efforts by the Australian-owned Berkeley Energía to open Europe’s largest uranium mine at Retortillo in the province of Salamanca.

Members of the European Parliament’s agriculture committee have welcomed aspects of Slovenia’s farming agenda as it takes on the rotating presidency of the EU Council, and called for action on organic produce, international trade and forestry policy.

Representatives of the forestry industry are calling for a ‘rewrite’ of the EU Forest Strategy that the Commission is planning to publish as part of the ‘fit for 55’ package, after being alarmed by the content of a recent leaked draft.

The EU plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 would more than double demand for biomass, outstripping “realistic supply of forest wood and energy crops” by 50-100%, a new report has revealed.

Spain has failed over a prolonged period to protect groundwater resources in the Doñana UNESCO-listed wetland in the south of the country from depletion by intensive agricultural irrigation and drinking water demand, the European Court of Justice has ruled.