Environmental Conditions in 2026: An Article by the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Professor Marina Neophytou, Published in the Newspaper Politis

In Cyprus in 2026, the environment is not being tested by a lack of laws or technical expertise, but by the gap between these and reality. This is precisely where the country’s greatest environmental challenge lies: the implementation of laws not in theory, but in practice through governance based on transparency, accountability, and effective oversight. Even though climate change is now firmly embedded in the collective consciousness and that adaptation and mitigation targets are becoming increasingly ambitious, the reality of 2025 clearly exposes the problem and the challenge.

In Akamas, at the coastal Lady’s Mile, and in coastal and protected areas, citizens once again witnessed projects and interventions that either proceeded despite warnings or were approved without convincingly ensuring compliance with environmental conditions. In the waste management sector, the situation at the landfills in Vati and Kotsiatis has led Cyprus to repeated convictions by the European Court of Justice. To this day, neither Vati nor Kotsiatis has been properly sealed, as required since 2013—waste remains on site, releasing toxic substances and contaminating the wider area.

However, the accountability deficit in 2025 was revealed in the most dramatic way by the wildfires in mountainous Limassol. Attributing the destruction of dozens of square kilometers of forest land to two discarded cigarette butts functioned more as an evasion than as an explanation. The core issue lies not in the random spark, but in the systematic absence of prevention, management, monitoring, and ultimately operational effectiveness. And this has direct consequences beyond forest loss: it undermines the country’s water security, water storage and filtration, and the resilience of catchment basins in an increasingly arid climate.

It is no coincidence that in 2025 we saw environmental organizations turning decisively to the courts. The temporary suspension of a major project in Pentakomo following an NGO appeal marked a major turning point: for the first time, a court halted a project purely on environmental grounds. Although these cases are still ongoing, they highlight something crucial: the right to a healthy environment is no longer an abstract concept, but a right that is actively being claimed.

Behind many environmental conflicts, a consistent pattern of injustice emerges: benefits are concentrated among the few, while impacts are dispersed among the many. And of course, this pattern does not only harm environmental quality. It also undermines climate change adaptation and mitigation actions, such as the lower-than-expected penetration of renewable energy sources, the impracticable Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans, and shortcomings in waste and construction sector management, rendering the adaptation strategy vulnerable.

Within this context, the green transition cannot be a purely technical exercise of compliance with European targets. It is also a matter of justice: who decides, who benefits, and who ultimately pays the environmental and social cost. Project monitoring cannot be left to formalities. Public consultation is not a box to be ticked; it is meaningful participation and the inclusion of citizens in the (re)design of projects, and a fundamental prerequisite for environmental justice. Mechanisms are needed to resolve deadlocks, as well as institutionally guaranteed capacities for immediate intervention in cases of violations.

In 2026, the challenge is not to add more laws, but to make the existing ones work. We need institutions that function. Policies that are implemented. Only in this way can environmental challenges be transformed from a source of social distrust into opportunities for a sustainable and fairer future.

Professor Marina Neophytou

Dean, Faculty of Engineering