FOR the third year running Spain topped the list of days when the levels of the dangerous gas went above EU safety levels. A new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) showed that the country exceeded the daily limit of 120 micrograms per cubic metre on a staggering 169 days last year. This is [...]

A DOZEN Greenpeace activists have started squatting in Spain’s most controversial illegal building. By Wendy Williams The group are refusing to move until their demands are met to knock down the El Algarrobico, which was built on a beach inside Almeria’s Cabo de Gata Natural Park. The move comes exactly three years after the license [...]

AN environmental lobby group in Gibraltar has condemned fire at the CEPSA oil refinery in San Roque as ‘disturbing.’ In particular the Environmental Safety Group voiced their concerns over a lack of official protocol for sharing information between the two border nations. In a strongly worded statement the group revealed they were alerted after the [...]

GREENPEACE has slammed a proposal to prospect for gas on the Costa del Sol. The global pressure group has called for an immediate halt to the exploration project, which could cause ‘chronic contamination’ and a lasting impact on marine life. Spanish boss Sara Pizzinato insists that the scheme proposed off Mijas ‘poses a huge risk [...]

THREE Costa de la Luz mayors have united to oppose a wind farm scheme a few kilometres offshore. The trio from Conil, Barbate and Vejer insist that the scheme – which would create hundreds of jobs – would ruin the coastline. They claim that the 1,000 megawatt project would also endanger their fishing stocks, if [...]

By Wendy Williams THE Spanish government is in deep water for keeping a study of contaminated seafood secret for seven years. It has emerged that it hushed up an in depth study in 2003 which concluded that mercury levels were higher than permitted for many popular species fished in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Now, [...]

SPAIN and Morocco have signed an unprecedented cross-border agreement protecting a biosphere reserve. The agreement has been formed in a bid to encourage sustainable development in the Mediterranean Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve established by UNESCO in 2006. The 907,185 hectare area which stretches into the Malaga and Cadiz provinces incorporates the natural parks of the Sierra [...]

UNDER a trial scheme launched in France last month, fishermen are now being paid to trawl for the so-called ‘plastic poison’ that threatens sea life. The move is part of a groundbreaking EU initiative to tackle plastic pollution, as well as give fishermen an alternative source of income. It comes as a sweetener after fishing [...]

By Jon Clarke THE opposition party has joined demands for action over the Western Beach sewage problem, which it fears is getting worse. The GSLP/Liberal party insists a hotel development in La Linea could cause further pollution on the beach, which has already been indefinitely shut due to health issues. It insists that the sewage [...]

By Jon Clarke and Wendy Williams ONE of Spain’s last unspoilt stetches of coastline has been saved from two huge megaprojects. Environmentalists on the Costa de la Luz are overjoyed that both schemes – a 200m euro port expansion for Tarifa and a golf development in Vejer – have been turned down by the Junta. [...]

By Caroline Peal FORMER UN chief Kofi Annan has slammed Costa del Sol planners who have allowed the coastline to become overdeveloped. Speaking to a packed conference hall in Marbella, Annan said planners should have been more careful. “Before rolling out a tourism strategy, one has to make sure that the development is sustainable from [...]

A DESPERATE battle is being waged in the high court to stop a developer from building a macroproject next to the Trafalgar lighthouse. Environmentalists insist that the plans to build the huge hotel complex next to one of Spain’s last virgin beaches on the Costa de la Luz have been passed illegally. They claim that [...]