Sustainable development

Athens and Thessaloniki were named on Wednesday among 35 cities around the world that will join the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative, a 100-million-dollar scheme to create a network of urban centers that will cooperate to build “their own capacities to navigate the shocks and stresses of an increasingly complex 21st century.”

Cengiz Construction is facing its second setback in a week after its project to build a coal plant on the shore of the Marmara Sea was suspended by a local administrative court, on the grounds that the assessment regarding the environmental impact of the facility was inadequate.

Turkey’s Environment Ministry has exempted a number of construction projects – including shopping malls, residential complexes, golf courts and small sized hydro-electric plants – from the mandatory environmental impact assessment process, in blatant violation of a Constitutional Court ruling.

The Environment Ministry has approved a gold mining project in a preserved rural area in the storied Kaz Mountains along Turkey’s northwestern Aegean Coast, which will impact 24 villages, a preserved lake and several archeological sites.

Bulgaria's new Environment Minister, Ivelina Vasileva, has vowed to keep the 2012 moratorium on the exploration and production of shale gas through hydraulic fracturing.

In a Sunday interview for bTV, Vasileva insisted that the authorities would not allow illegal and uncontrolled construction.
She pledged clearly mapped protected areas on the Black Sea coast.

A local Turkish court has halted the construction of a five-star hotel complex next to Phaselis, one of the best preserved ancient cities located on a cove along the Mediterranean Sea, marking a new victory for activists in their latest battle against investors seeking to expand their businesses in areas with protected status.

The construction of the third metro line in Bulgaria's Sofia could be delayed over appeals lodged against a decision of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Sofia chief architect Petar Dikov said.

A new regulation drafted by the Environment Ministry will exempt many facilities, including residential estates, hospitals and golf courses from environmental assessments.

Hydroelectric power plant (HES) projects threatening rare biological life on natural protected areas will not be permitted, but other protected areas are “open” for construction, according to an Environment Ministry resolution.

The resolution will likely set a precedent for dozens of legal disputes over the growing number of HES projects.

Data collected in the controversial environmental impact assessment report (ÇED) regarding Turkey’s prospective first nuclear plant in Akkuyu in Mersin has provided serious warnings that the plant could hurt the region’s ecosystem once it comes operational.