<p>Europe’s highest court ruled on April 28 that the calculation the European Commission uses to set the maximum amount of free carbon permits issued to industries is flawed. Discrepancies in the data provided by the bloc's 28 nations on new industrial installations led to the error, the court said. It gave the Commission 10 months to review the policy. The ruling will not be retroactive and will not affect the overall cap of the EU's Emissions Trading System, but it could lead to a slight cut in the share of free permits issued to industry from 2018.

<p>On April 22, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Resources (IBAMA) suspended the license for the São Luiz do Tapajós dam construction. This would have been the largest in the Tapajós watershed in the Amazon and would have flooded an area the size of New York City, deforested 849 square miles, and displaced indigenous people. The decision followed a report by Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), which highlighted the negative impacts the dam would produce on local communities and recommended the demarcation of the nearby indigenous Munduruku territory.

<p>A joint action by Peruvian public prosecutor’s office and a specialized environmental police force arrested 19 members of a logging gang on April 22. Among those arrested were two police officers and two regional forestry officials, whose involvement still needs to be clarified. Nearly 70,000 Peruvian Sol (a little over $20,000) were seized in the joint action, along with two trucks and a trailer loaded with illegal timber.&nbsp;China, Mexico, and the United States are said to be the chief destinations for the illegal timber harvested by the gang.