Rafael Nadal and hotel entrepreneur Abel Matutes Prats have partnered up to develop two large luxury residential projects on the Costa del Sol. 

The Junta de Andalucía has just approved one, the licence for the urban development in the Los Llanos sector, in Estepona, for its attention to environmental sustainability. This approval suggests that the Estepona council plans to approve the development in its next Plenary, scheduled for January.

The initiative includes Palya Invest, based in the Balearic Islands, which owns Palya Casa del Mar, whose board includes Abel Matutes Prats and Sebastián Nadal Homar, Rafa Nadal‘s dad. The project aims to reduce the area of construction for better urban management. The road leading to the project includes a design to create better access to the beach for everyone.

The new remodelled concept is to construct detached homes and semi-detached houses reducing considerably the footprint of each construction, which is estimated to be some 50 houses with 3 floors, and adding many more trees as well as maintaining as many existing ones as possible.

The Los Llanos plot was purchased by Mabel Casa for about €20 million at the end of 2019, making it one of the last virgin real estate developments by the sea on the Costa del Sol.

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Tensions flare as Extinction Rebellion protests fuel fears of a climate disaster:

In a huge move, climate activists from Extinction Rebellion brought traffic in the Dutch city of The Hague to a screeching halt on January 11, causing chaos throughout the city. Despite the fact that the protest had been officially banned by the Dutch Government, hundreds of demonstrators stormed the A12 motorway, preventing cars from entering or leaving the city, all in a fiery stand against the government’s controversial fossil fuel subsidies.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. Thousands of Extinction Rebellion activists previously protested against fossil fuel subsidies by blocking the A12 motorway in 2023.

This time, despite police efforts to block the protest, including erecting screens and fences along the road, several groups of passionate protesters made their way past the barriers, turning the busy highway into their battleground for change. The government had already banned the protest, but it went ahead anyway.

The Dutch government’s decision to reintroduce fossil fuel subsidies, once scrapped, is stoking the flames of public outrage. According to climate protestors ‘It’s a long-term protest to stop fossil subsidies,‘ not a spur-of-the-moment initiative. According to some protestors, the fires in Los Angeles are direct evidence of climate change caused by fossil fuels. There were angry shouts against the €47 billion a year given to ‘the most polluting businesses in the Netherlands’. What is really happening? Is the government funding fossil fuels despite scientific evidence that these fossil fuels are leading to worldwide disasters? Are the protestors’ claims accurate, or is this just populism?

Anger and controversy over fossil fuel subsidies in the Netherlands

In 2023, the Dutch government admitted that fossil fuel subsidies in the country amounted to a staggering €39.7 to €46.4 billion annually. And now, the new right-wing government has decided to reintroduce these subsidies, much to the anger of environmental campaigners.

Authorities responded by deploying water cannons in an attempt to disperse the protesters, but several demonstrators were detained – though police have yet to release the exact number.

But the message from Extinction Rebellion couldn’t be clearer: The fight for the planet’s future is heating up, and they’re not backing down any time soon.

Get more Dutch news in English.

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The ‘forgotten issue’ which has gone under the radar somewhat remains a stark threat to the health of many citizens throughout Europe, and a handful of countries in particular. Air pollution was the sole cause of around 239,000 deaths across the continent last year, as the European Commission aims to tackle the silent killer head on. Read on to find out which countries are at most risk.

Strict WHO guidelines sees all of Europe fail to meet criteria

The guidelines set out in 2021 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) dictated a much lower threshold than ever before for acceptable yearly concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which includes dust, exhaust fumes and smoke, as scientists are now discovering that much less amounts of air pollution can still pose a significant risk to public health.

Pollution from these sources stands as a risk for lung cancer, heart and respiratory diseases such as stroke, and even detrimental birth defects, with many cases of health tragedies possibly never linked to this deadly threat.

The organisation found that all countries in Europe fail to meet the required threshold, with certain European nations seeing many more deaths than others due to this causal factor. North Macedonia suffers the most deaths, followed by Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria and Montenegro. Northern Italy, Poland, and the Czech Republic all see elevated mortality rates due to PM2.5, and this is because of an influx in residentially-sourced pollution, which includes agricultural use. 

Poorer areas in Europe see most air pollution deaths

In such areas where poverty is a damning issue, coal is still being burned to heat up homes, and this also massively contributes to the rate of mortality. A recent report from the European Commission in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) revealed the damning statistics, putting citizens of these areas, and the rest of Europe, back on high alert.

Many are led to believe that environmentally-friendly introductions to city development can only be beneficial, but studies from the report also suggest that green spaces can have a negative impact. 

NO2 mortality, which mainly arises in areas where there is the most congestion in regard to traffic, and fumes coming directly from factories, is highest in major cities throughout western and southern Europe.

“The biggest divide in Europe we see is east and west, [and this] aligns very much with GDP and the socioeconomic backgrounds of the two regions” commented Zorana Jovanovic Andersen, a professor in Environmental Epidemiology at the University of Copenhagen, and a member of the European Respiratory Society’s Environment and Health Committee.

Citizens can take their own government to court if they do not comply with air pollution standards

In December 2024, WHO upped their air quality rules further and aimed to clamp down on flailing EU nations who do not comply to the standards required to maintain safe public health, urging its member states to keep a close eye on levels of pollutants such as black carbon, ammonia, as well as NO2 and PM2.5. 

The new initiative also allows citizens of impacted countries to have the right to take their own government to court if it cannot fulfil the new requests and curb deaths related to air pollution. The European Commission remains positive that change can swiftly be enacted, promising to reduce deaths from air pollution by 55% by 2030.

Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, the director of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health’s Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative told Euronews Health: “The plan is one of the biggest public health interventions for a generation.”

Countries are taking positive strides forward in light of this news, however, with Denmark most notably aiming to become the world’s first country to propose a carbon tax on livestock farming in 2030.

As science’s advancements in the ability to thoroughly research such matters and recognise the real impact of health threats such as air pollution become catalysed, due in part to the enhancement of technological software such as AI, the challenge has been placed right in front of EU’s member states. 

Andersen concluded: “We have reduced the air pollution, and we know how to and a lot of countries are leading. But there are new challenges coming, so we need to regulate air pollution – the old problem.”

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