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Extractive activities constitute an essential strategic sector in the renewable transformation of the new energy model that the European Union is ambitiously promoting through numerous regulatory and strategic instruments in the last five years from the Paris Agreement until the recent approval of the proposed regulatory package "Fit for 55" and the European Climate Law, with the aim of achieving climate neutrality in 2050. To achieve this objective, the so-called critical mineral resources (CRM, critical raw materials) constitute a key element related to climate change and the development of renewable technologies of the new energy model, once again placing these activities at the center of the history of industrial and economic transformations, this time in the 21st century. Despite the impetus and attention from the European Union, through the EU Action Plan on minerals and raw materials essential for the development of strategic sectors and the promotion of their extraction, in Spain we continue in a regime of exceptionality and constitutional abnormality before the still pending Law of Bases of the Mining Regime (art. 149.1.25) that adapts the preconstitutional Law of 1973 to the organization and competences of the Autonomous State, and that dynamizes and promotes a new intelligent and environmentally climatic mining (Smart Mining) both with a current regulation in the granting of permits and concessions, as happens in the legislation of neighboring countries, as well as with the introduction of technologies that facilitate the search for resources with new prospecting methods and the resolution of mineral problems and improvement of the final products. However, maintaining a tradition of the Governments in Spain of the absence of regulatory predetermination and great discretion in their actions and decisions, paradoxically these activities have not received the slightest attention in the three pillars of our Strategic Framework for Energy and Climate, leaving a mere very punctual mention, and also in a prohibitive sense, in the recent Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The circular economy paradigm represents a space for innovation and for the greening of the productive model that can bring not only environmental but also social and economic benefits. Spain has recently approved its first Circular Economy Action Plan, which, in the absence of an updated Waste and Contaminated Land Law in line with European regulations, is the first concrete expression of the Spanish Circular Economy Strategy 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The circular economy paradigm represents a space for innovation and for the greening of the productive model that can bring not only environmental but also social and economic benefits. Spain has recently approved its first Circular Economy Action Plan, which, in the absence of an updated Waste and Contaminated Land Law in line with European regulations, is the first concrete expression of the Spanish Circular Economy Strategy 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste has been generating environmental problems for a long time, but some, such as packaging and plastics, have a proven utility (as we are verifying during the coronavirus epidemic); justifying the intervention of the Law. This regulation has evolved according to the perception of the environmental problems posed by waste, packaging and plastics; specifically, from the idea of "produce, use and throw away" it has moved to the circular economy. The work analyzes this normative evolution in the European Union and in Spain, from the original regulation to the current one, which already incorporates the philosophy of the circular economy, mainly in relation to plastics, and particularly at the national level, with projects and standards new in this matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the mobilization of Spanish cities in the fight against climate change in the framework of the Covenant of Mayors, launched in 2008 in the European Union. Through the Covenant, cities commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as to improve their energy efficiency and increase the use of renewable energies. With more than 7,700 signatories, the Covenant is an interesting example of how cities have a decisive role In the fight against climate change and in improving the sustainability of cities. The article gives an account of concrete initiatives that Spanish cities have proposed to fulfill their commitments, ranging from the replacement of public lighting to the pedestrianisation of urban centers passing through areas the increase of green in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo ofrece información legislativa y jurisprudencial sobre la protección del medio ambiente en España. Incluye Decreto Legislativo 1/2016 con respecto a la cuota de saneamiento de agua, que es un impuesto a las acciones de finanzas relacionadas con la gestión de las aguas residuales. También se discute, es la sentencia del Tribunal Supremo español relacionados con el uso de las aguas subterráneas.

Two complementary studies, in which experts, technicians and citizens are consulted regarding communication campaigns and environmental management conducted by the City Council of Madrid. A mixed method is developed (qualitative and quantitative techniques) with interviews, educational campaigns and review of citizens' complaints to the municipality (N = 932). The results highlight some problems within local management and communication that maintain environmental conflicts. The conclusions seek to increase the value of environmental education and their different strategies, consistent in complementarity with other mechanisms inherent to public administration (management, legislation, investment). Some proposals are delivered to improve the management of resources and increase efficiency by the development of educational campaigns and communication with the citizens of this government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo analiza decretos y sentencias en Derecho del Medio Ambiente de España emitidos entre mayo 2008 y enero 2009. Se incluyen la Ley 30/2014 que reglamenta la conservación de los parques nacionales, las leyes 11/2014 y 8/2014 de prevención ambiental de las comunidades autónomas de Aragón y Castilla y León respectivamente, así como varias sentencias que sientan jurisprudencia sobre el proceso de evaluación de impacto ambiental.

The degradation of the environment has generated considerable debate regarding the need for specific tax policies aimed at encouraging changes in the behavior of individuals and economic operators. In Spain, the use these types of tax instruments has not produced satisfactory results given that their main purpose has been limited to the collection of taxes, overlooking their environmental function. Furthermore, preparatory work for the imminent tax reform has highlighted the opportunity to reverse this situation, although draft bills of law published to date do not appear to comply with that need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo analiza decretos y sentencias en Derecho de Medio Ambiente de la Unión Europea (UE), España y Portugal emitidos entre diciembre de 2013 y marzo de 2014. Los temas tratados incluyen la directiva 2014/52/UE sobre evaluación del impacto de proyectos en el medio ambiente, la aprobación del Programa Estatal de Prevención de Residuos 2014-2020 de España y la ordenanza no. 40/2014 de Portugal sobre manejo de residuos de la construcción y demolición para protección del medio ambiente.

The goal of the research is the webometric analysis of the main Spanish central Government sites concerning environmental issues. In this line, topography, structure, interaction, and meta-description of the contents are studied so that results can be compared with the Mexican environment websites. To achieve this, the Mbot webcrawler tool - which analyzes the site extent and dimension, the website ranking, the meta-descriptors ratio by page, the frequency analysis of the description terms and some statistical tables to estimate the sample - has been used in this academic. Because of results, several recommendations to improve the search engines indexing and remove bad practices that limit the access to public information as well as the information retrieval have been developed. It can be outlined the interplay between the Spanish environment Websites and its European counterpart, the number of unpopular information sources, syndication channels that enable public environmental information monitoring and, lastly, the ideal range of frequency of occurrence for the terms used in the meta-descriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development has become daily routine for public administration when strategic planification is to be faced. Environmental policies have traditionally pretended to aim at sustainability, but the extent to which the latter has been universally assumed by institutions, justifies talking about sustainable development policies as such. In this piece of work we will try to analyze the origins and development of such policies in the concrete case of the Basque Country, given the fact that Spanish Constitution gives autonomous communities a prominent role in the management of sustainability. Therefore, we will attempt to describe and, above all, explain how those policies were set into public agenda and which are —and why—the most important features of their scope and objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was performed in the province of Granada with the objective of determining the effects of the European agri-environmental policy to combat soil erosion on olive orchards of the region of Andalusia since Spain joined the EU (1986). To accomplish this objective we first studied the recent European normative about soil erosion. Secondly, an econometric analysis by probit models of farmers' participation in agri-environmental erosion schemes was developed. Finally an ordered probit model was estimated to test farmers' adoption of soil conservation practices with no tillage and herbicides. From the estimated probit models it is concluded that there are structural factors in farm and farmers that influence the decision of participating in plans to reduce the soil erosion, as well as characteristics of the plans, such as payments and advice to farmers. It is also noted that the European agri-environmental policy based on subsidies does not encourage adequately the environmental awareness of the farmer but perverts it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six years after its sinking, images of the Prestige remain etched in our memory: an overturned, leaking oil tanker losing part of its load and being towed out to high sea over the course of six days, during which time the tanker split in two and sank to a depth of 3,500 meters. The fuel reached the coast in several waves, affecting Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, and to a lesser extent, France and Portugal. Fishermen, shellfish gatherers, and thousands of volunteers took it upon themselves to prevent the worst consequences of the slick. Demonstrators gathered en masse in Santiago de Compostela… Never before in Spain had a disaster of this nature had such media, social, and political impact. What implications did this have for policies designed to prevent and combat environmental disasters? Did these public policies change as a result of this event? In this paper, frame analysis applied to public policy analysis is used to answer these questions. In other words, the paper analyzes the prevailing discourse regarding these public policies, how the problem is defined, what is identified as its cause, how the problem is situated geographically, to whom the problem and liability for it is attributed, what the proposed solutions are, what or who the targets of the policies are, the places at which these policies are aimed, and who should act to solve the problem. This analysis enables us both to conclude that the Prestige disaster did not bring about an essential change in Spanish public policies designed to prevent and combat marine oil pollution, and to draw lessons for improving the effectiveness of the public policies analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen participation is often presented as a necessary part of the process of defining and managing environmental policies. In fact, it is generally regulated in a variety of ways that affect people's rights to enquire, request and receive information. This article examines three aspects of this issue within the context of Spain: the legal and political limits of citizen participation rights, showing their inferior position in relation to conventional political participation; specific examples of citizen involvement in environmental conflicts, which operates by means that are often outside the regulated channels; and the social functions of requests for regulated participation, which indicate a remarkably contradictory situation. In actual fact, this participation takes very different forms, sometimes going through the channels defined by governments, though often consciously ignoring or questioning them. To ensure a sufficiently comprehensive analytical approach, it should include a sociological view of the conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 30 July, Law 22/2011 on waste and polluted soil came into force and repealed the former Law 10/1998 on waste. This article analyses the developments introduced by this Law in relation to polluted soils and what effects they are likely to have. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses demarcation of environmental protection for the historical village of El Castrillón de Villacondide in Coaña, Spain.