Environmental news, climate policy, and sustainability in Portugal.
The Environment Minister has asked the IGAMAOT inspectorate to check the origin, treatment and use of material sold as compost fertiliser on farmland in the Beja district, after months of complaints from councils and residents.
Unit I at Spain's Almaraz nuclear plant on the Tagus shut down automatically on 5 November after an electrical protection acted. The regulator rated it INES level 0, and Portugal's APA says no protective measures are needed.
The Environment and Energy Minister says new data centres will need renewable electricity, available water, a share of grid connection costs and environmental clearance. Electricity-intensive industry connects without an auction; data centres must compete.
Applicants found eligible for a Vale Eficiência who never received one can claim 1,300 euros plus VAT per voucher for windows, heat pumps or solar panels. The Environmental Fund emailed them on 30 October; confirmations open on 23 November.
Água & Sal, Dunas Livres, GEOTA, Quercus, SPEA and Zero have gone to the Beja administrative court against the approval of an irrigated orchard whose 12 boreholes could take 1.74 million cubic metres a year from the aquifer that supplies Alcácer do Sal and Grândola.
Albufeira's mayor says the plant breaches the council's master plan and wants the brine pumped further out. The minister says the embargo covers the land, not the works. He also sits on the board of the company building it.
The Algarve's two landfills, at Portimão and Loulé, are close to full. The APA signed an 11-month study in Faro on 30 October to choose between incineration and sorting plants, and the minister says the solution will take four to five years to build.
