The article analyses legal regulations concerning the application of noise barriers with reference to road investments. It discusses general provisions aimed at protecting the environment against noise, special regulations pertaining to roads, and the legal status of a noise barrier. The role of noise barriers was approached in the context of the environmental impact assessment of a project. It was also necessary to take heed of the impact of noise barriers on third parties’ interests and the landscape.

The commented rules determine the basic scope of Geological and Mining Act of 9 June 2011. It covers the performance of geological work, extracting minerals from deposits, underground non-reservoir storage of substances, and also — as part of a demonstration project — the underground storage of waste and carbon dioxide. The provisions of this Act shall apply correspondingly to some other use of the interior of the Earth’s crust.

The authors of the report analyse the risks and threats to the environment that may occur in connection with prospecting for, exploration of and exploitation of shale gas in Poland. The report includes both the requirements of European and Polish law. According to the authors, these solutions do not provide sufficient environmental protection. Their assessments are not only based on false premises, but also are devoid of adequate justification.

The commented judgment regards the statutory command to include information about mineral deposits in the study of conditions and directions of local (spacial) development. Since the municipal council had ignored this obligation while preparing the study, the voivode (as the supervisory authority) had an obligation to appropriately modify this document by replacement ordinance. Environmental Protection Law in its Art. 72 provides that such studies as well as local development plans must take into account the current and future needs related to the mining of minerals from deposits.

Forest is a concept difficult to define in legal language. In European Union Member States the concept refers to both, an area from 0.05 ha up to 2 ha as well as an area of tree crowns from 10% to 30%. Forest definition in Poland is significantly different from the forest definition included in the European Union legislation. The Forest Act introduces four criteria of considering a given land a forest: environmental criterion, spatial criterion, criterion of the use for forest production and criterion of a relation with forest management. For the purpose of proper interpretation of forest definition, the interpretation of the following criteria is of importance: the use of the land for the purposes of forest management and its use for forest production. It is necessary to amend the forest act in the scope of specifying the forest definition. The legislator should also solve the problem concerning the issue of types of forest crops, a type of forest stand that can be considered as forest. A new forest definition should include the issue of planting fast-growing trees, pines understood as a separate type of production forests and the issue of considering the land as forest area, when this land cannot be of use for forest management.

The subject of the text is the issue of geothermal energy, considered in the context of the rights to a plot of land and the interior of the Earth when conducting geological works under the relevant legislation in this matter, which have been analyzed taking into account the specifics of specified types of renewable energy sources.