Last week, Stockholm’s vice mayor for transport announced that the Swedish capital will ban gas-and diesel-powered cars from significant portions of its city center starting in 2025. The initiative is aimed at improving air quality and reducing traffic noise in the city (Reuters). It establishes an environmental zone encompassing 20 blocks in the inner city, which includes upscale shopping districts and some of Sweden's most expensive office properties.

ClientEarth, an environmental campaign group, has filed a second complaint with a court in Sweden to block construction of a gas pipeline through Swedish waters. The group is arguing that Sweden's Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation failed to consider the project's impact on wildlife in the Baltic Sea when it approved the pipeline in June. Construction of the pipeline involves detonating World War II bombs on the sea floor along the project's 510-kilometer route in Sweden.

The European Commission is taking Poland to court due to Poland’s inability to tackle poor air quality. Poland is Europe’s most polluted country, with pollution levels more than double those in France. More than 40,000 Poles die each year due to air pollution. Poland uses coal and, on occasion, garbage to heat the country’s homes. South Poland, near the ski resort towns, feels the effects stronger than the rest of the country due to local neglect of environmental rules.

Swedish companies have sold about 200 tons of Baltic salmon containing illegal levels of dioxin in the European Union, breaching a ban on fatty fish from the Baltic Sea. The ban does not apply to fish sold directly to consumers in Sweden, Finland, and Latvia, but a 2002 EU ban restricts the sale of salmon from the heavily polluted sea due to dioxin's link to cancer and reproductive damage.