What are the laws that protect the environment

In terms of water, we find different regulations depending on the medium where these waters are located. Thus, for example, we find laws that protect water as the following:

• Protection of the marine environmentlike the Law 41/2010of December 29, of protection of the marine medium, through which the spills of ships and aircraft are controlled, protecting the threatened marine species, as well as the declaration of protected marine areas.
• The other waterslike groundwater, they find protection in the Royal Legislative Decree 1/2001 of July 20 by which the consolidated text of the Aguas Law is approved, which controls the discharges that can be carried out, both in rivers and in places that may affect the waters of the subsoil, among other things.

Within the laws that protect the environmentthose of the scope of Biodiversity. The most relevant law that we find at the state level is Law 42/2007 of natural heritage and biodiversity, which regulates the basic aspects of conservation, sustainable use, improvement and restoration of natural heritage. Thus, this regulates the most essential aspects of ecological processes, conservation of natural habitats and wildlife and flora.

When talking that a law regulates the basic (or minimum) aspects, it means that this standard will regulate the minimum protection that must be complied with, being other regulations, whether autonomic or local those responsible for establishing a broader protection framework on these matters.

We recommend this other article on the loss of biodiversity: causes and consequences and also this other about what animals are.

On this matter, in recent times there are constant changes and new regulations are being generated in front of the Climate crisis In which we are immersed, without going any further, we are necessary to highlight that it has recently been published in the Official Gazette of the General Courts, the project of Law on Climate Change and Energy Transitionaimed at achieving the objectives in this area acquired by Spain internationally⁽¹⁾.

Likewise, on January 21, 2020, the Council of Ministers agreed to the “Government Declaration before the Climate and Environmental Emergency”, this declaration is in line with the international commitment of Reduce global greenhouse gas emissionsassumed by The Paris Agreementas well as with the commitments acquired in the United Nations 2030 Agenda, about the objectives of sustainable development.

To have more notions on these issues, we encourage you to read these other articles about the causes and consequences of climate change and how climate change affects people.

In terms of renewable energy, we do not find an exception to the normative dispersion existing in terms of Environmental legislation. Renewable energies are all those that use natural resources, such as sun, wind and water as energy sources. Thus, and due to their cataloging as a source of obtaining green energy, we find rules for Promote the use of renewables. At European level we can find the Directive 2018/2001 Relative to the promotion of energy use from renewable sources, which has the limit period of application by the Member States until June 30, 2021.

We recommend reading the information you will see in this link about renewable energies in Spain.

In the field of laws that protect the environmentwe cannot forget the norms that are responsible for regulating and guaranteeing compliance with the Responsibility in environmental damage.

At European level we find the “Directive 2004/35/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on Environmental Responsibility in relation and repair of environmental damages ”⁽²⁾the purpose of it is to establish a framework of environmental responsibility based on one of the basic principle of environmental protection “Who pollutes pay”focusing on the prevention and repair of the damage caused to the environment. This directive establishes minimums that the Member States must comply with by applying their internal regulations. In the case of Spain, the internal application derived from this European Standard is found in the Law 26/2007 of Environmental Responsibilitywhich regulates damage to both waters, soil, river and riverbank, such as damage to the fauna and flora species that are permanently or temporarily found in Spain.

As has been said at the beginning of this article, this is just a small sample of the Environmental legislation currently existing, since at present, environmental norms are very dispersed among the different existing regulations, it is important to highlight the difficulty that this means, not being easy to search and application of them. Therefore, it is necessary that as soon as possible the environmental legislation is unified, to make their knowledge and application more simple, both for individuals and for companies.

Finally and if you want to enter these issues related to Environmental Protection Lawswe encourage you to read these other Ecology posts Verde about what environmental law is, what are the crimes against the environment with examples and environmental policy: what is and examples.

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