NCOC assets seized — Kashagan fine collection moves from paper to practice
The standoff over the environmental fine for Kashagan's operator enters a new, far more concrete phase.
Ecology
Slovenia also reduced nuclear power output due to heat — following Hungary and Romania.
European nuclear plants hit by summer heat grow again.
EU launches tender for construction of seven AI gigafactories
The European Commission launched a tender for seven of Europe's largest AI training data centers, aiming to catch up with the US and China in the computing power race.
Netherlands closed canals between The Hague and Rotterdam due to drought.
Europe's summer of 2026 keeps setting unprecedented precedents. Dutch authorities have, for the first time in the region's history, closed all canal locks between The Hague and Rotterdam.
Belgium lets Chinese laser weeding robots into the EU.
Belgian firm Hands On Tech is the EU's first importer of China's CyanForce laser-weeding robots, which zap weeds with laser pulses instead of herbicides.
Kazakhstan ranks second in the world in chernozem reserves, and it has finally begun to be protected.
According to the FAO UN Global Soil Partnership map, Kazakhstan ranks second globally in chernozem area — about 108 million hectares.
84% of countries failed to meet commitments on environmentally harmful subsidies — Kazakhstan disclosed only part of its own
Of 134 countries submitting national reports to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), only 21 (16%) fully identified their harmful nature subsidies by the 2025 deadline.