<p>On November 18, 2015, the United Kingdom announced that it intends to close all coal-fired power plants by 2025 that are not able to capture and store their carbon emissions. The country plans to begin restricting usage of coal-fired power plants in 2023. Coal-fired power plants that are able to implement carbon capture and storage before 2025 would not be required to shut down. This announcement makes the United Kingdom the first major economy to name a date for shutting down coal plants.
<p>A court in Singapore approved the release of a shipment of rosewood from Madagascar, which had been seized by Singapore over a year ago. The timber, worth more than $50 million, was recently shipped without permits and in the face of a national ban on such exports. Singapore District Judge Jasvender Kaur dismissed the case against the company Kong Hoo for importing 30,000 rosewood logs from Madagascar in March 2014. The judge argued that the rosewood was in transit to Hong Kong, and there is no evidence that the logs were imported into Singapore.
<p>Nasako Besingi, an activist from Cameroon, was convicted of four criminal counts against palm oil company Herakles Farms, a U.S.-based palm oil company that operates in Cameroon. Besingi is the director of the Cameroonian NGO Struggle to Economize our Future Environment (SEFE), a group that has led resistance against palm oil plantations in Cameroon. Besingi was convicted of two counts of defamation and two counts of propagation of false news after three years of legal battles. He was sentenced to either three years in prison or a fine of $2,400.