<p>Ibama, Brazil's environmental regulator, rejected an environmental license request for a proposed hydroelectric dam in the Amazon on the Tapajos River. The dam had been opposed by conservation groups and indigenous tribes. Ibama's ruling determined that the backers of the dam had not provided adequate information to prove environmental and social viability. The dam, if approved, would have been one of Brazil's biggest dams with an installed capacity of approximately 6.1 gigawatts.

<p>The Supreme Court of India ruled on August 12 that diesel vehicles are allowed on the national capital's streets as long as they pay a 1% "green" tax. The auto industry welcomed the ruling following a series of rulings by lower courts that banned diesel vehicles, old and new. The previous rulings had raised concerns that exhaust fumes from diesel vehicles contribute to the air pollution crisis in Delhi.

<p>The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), an Indonesian NGO, filed a lawsuit against the head of the Aceh Tamiang district, Hamdan Sati, at the Banda Aceh Administrative Court for a permit that they issued to a cement factory to operate in the nationally protected Leuser Ecoystem. The Leuser Ecosystem is among Southeast Asia's last swaths of intact rainforest. The cement company, PT Tripa Semen Aceh, has a license to develop a mine and a factory on more than 2,500 hectares of land in Kaloy Village, which is located in Aceh Tamiang's Tamiang Hulu subdistrict.