This Thursday (27), the 56th Congress overturned President Lula’s veto of the new environmental licensing law, which relaxes protection standards and speeds up the licensing process for businesses. With this measure, the new features created by the text return to the law, such as self-licensing by declaration, the reduction of requirements in the Atlantic Forest and the exclusion of indigenous peoples from consultations on construction on their lands.
The only items not considered in Thursday’s session refer to the so-called Special Environmental License (LAE), included in the text amended by the President of the Senate, Davy of Colombia (Uniao-AP), which accelerates the consideration of projects of “national interest”, such as oil exploration in the tropical margin. These devices will be discussed in the processing of the temporary measure putting the LAE into effect that expires next week.
In August, when the veto was announced, the federal government said the blocked sections “ensure environmental protection and legal security.” Now, environmental institutes and associations have responded to the repeal of the presidential veto, claiming that the supposed goals of COP 30 are at risk and announcing that they will take legal action against the repeal of the veto.
Understanding overturned vetoes and their effects
The LAC, the name given to self-declaration of a project’s environmental impact, is back in law with the veto overturned. This means that projects with moderate pollution potential could join the LAC region. According to the Press Observatory, about 90% of state licenses can be done automatically, in an announced manner.
The Mariana and Brumadinho (MG) dams are examples of projects classified as having moderate pollution potential. This action contradicts the STF’s jurisprudence against this type of release
Almost the entire industrial sector will benefit from this license, said Solly Araujo, Public Policy Coordinator at the Climate Observatory.
A veto of 12 provisions dealing with allowing states and municipalities to set their own licensing rules, without standardizing national standards, was overturned. According to environmental institutes, this creates legal uncertainty. They remember, for example, that there are forests and parks in more than one country. Moreover, the role of the federal government will be hollowed out, which instead of setting general standards, begins to delegate this task to other federal bodies.
- Preserving the Atlantic Forest
The veto on withdrawing special protections for the Atlantic Forest within the licensing process has been overturned. The NGO SOS Mata Atlântica says this will lead to deforestation in the more mature parts of the forest, affecting water availability, further exacerbating the effects of climate events and increasing tragedies.
- Indigenous peoples and quilombola
Provisions restricting consultation with indigenous peoples and quilombola communities in projects affecting their lands were repealed. This means, for example, that large-scale works such as the Shinju hydropower station or oil exploration in the tropical fringe no longer need to rely on public hearings with indigenous people.
Congress returned an exemption from environmental licensing for rural producers whose rural environmental registry (CAR) is still awaiting analysis by state environmental agencies. According to environmental institutes, this means that even properties that have been illegally deforested or located on occupied land will be able to produce without a license.
Lula objected to departments that released environmental compensation without linking to lands affected by the work. This means analyzing the so-called “indirect effect”. For example, a hydroelectric power plant can interfere with the population balance of fish living kilometers away. With the overthrow, the law once again allows this influence to be ignored by the businessman.
The veto of the article that removed the binding nature of ICMBio’s and other management bodies’ manifestations of actions in conservation unit areas was overturned. The law specifies that these bodies only provide advice on works that may take place in national parks, such as in Jericoacoara, Foz do Iguaçu and Floresta da Tijuca.
- Financier’s responsibility
The veto of the ruling that weakened the liability of financial institutions in cases of environmental damage caused by projects they finance was overturned. For example, Greenpeace’s “Bancando a Extinção” report showed that many farms in the Amazon region obtained rural credit despite evidence of its illegitimacy. According to the study, more than R$43 million was lent to areas characterized by illegal deforestation, signs of land grabbing, overlap with protected areas, or irregular livestock production.