The demolition of Brazilian environmental regulations is well underway, environmentalists say. The approval, on Tuesday morning, of the provisional measure for environmental licensing in the Joint Committee of the National Congress is seen as another move to disrupt the framework that has been built over the past 40 years. Experts say the special environmental license, originally proposed by Senate President Davy Alcolombre, was already problematic in concept; Not only was the matter not rectified by the government in MP, the matter got worse with the changes made by rapporteur MP Z Vietor (PL-MG).
According to Sueli Araujo, coordinator of the Climate Observatory and former president of Ibama, the fact that the text kept the government’s inclusion of steps to comply with the LAE does not change the concept that it is a single-stage license, which reduces the quality of the analyses.
– LAE is still bad. The government has not corrected the problems and there are still problems. This license remains one-phase, they just removed the word. There is a narrative effort when talking about “steps,” but the concept is one license, issued within one year. Imagine Belo Monte being licensed within twelve months. In the electricity sector law, approved last week, they objected to the 90-day LAE, but left in place a provision that applies it to all hydropower plants – criticizes Sule, highlighting that the license will be challenged in court.
She sees no expectation of a relevant change in the plenary:
– LAE was Alcolumbre’s flagship franchise. Who knows for what. The government infrastructure sector wants LAE.
Fabio Ishisaki, professor of environmental law and public policy advisor at the Climate Observatory, highlights that the LAE does not guarantee the minimum necessary for a good analysis by the licensing body, including a realistic deadline and adequate consultations.
— It is difficult to talk about a minimum duration, because it depends on each project. But it takes at least three years. Twelve months is a very short period, even if there are three stages in that period. Therefore, there is no time to check whether the expected impacts are real and to adapt the project. You go straight to negative impact, without the ability to adapt, he says.
One of the most important points, according to ecologists, is the device introduced by the rapporteur that specifies the use of LAE for the repaving and reconstruction of pre-existing highways, with a rapid procedure – an amendment that has been interpreted as aiming to comply with BR-319 (Manaus – Porto Velho), surrounded by warnings about the high risk of environmental degradation.
There is an expectation that PSOL and Rede will try to suppress this section, but the assessment behind the scenes is that it will be difficult to reverse something in the plenary session of the House and Senate. This Tuesday, the Council must also analyze the seven vetoes used by President Lula regarding the LAE – all of which have a high chance of being overturned, as happened with 56 other vetoes last week.
– The LAE is part of a system for the rapid release of licenses with high environmental impact, which are difficult to analyze and issue at the time, at least not for full analysis from project conception to operation – which strengthens Ishisaki.
Among the most problematic aspects of LAE, the environmental law professor highlights the following:
- Accelerating projects with a significant environmental impact (priority for analysis and completion within a maximum period of 12 months from submitting the environmental study)
- Conduct a “fast track” of projects and activities that are likely to cause the greatest negative environmental impact. The text uses the term “significant environmental impact” and places the EIA/RIMA as a necessary document, which is only used for large projects, indicating that there is ambiguity.
- It has a monophasic system: the text talks about “steps” and not “stages,” including the definition of LAE
- The LAE is already progressing, as are the text of the Electricity Sector Framework (Federal Law No. 15,269/2025) and the GTs established in the CNPM (CNPM Decision 4/2025).
- The LAE, in the Rapporteur’s opinion, becomes applicable to “reconstruction and repaving works on pre-existing highways whose sections represent strategic links, relevant from the perspective of national security, access to basic social rights and integration between federal units”. It is worth noting that in the first opinion, “services and works aimed at maintaining and improving infrastructure in existing facilities or in right-of-way and right-of-way areas, including previously paved highways,” were exempt from licensing. The government has vetoed this device.
In addition to issues related to LAE, the report included topics outside this type of license, so-called tortoises, which are also of interest to environmentalists.
- LAC potential for sand, gravel, crushed stone and diamonds
- They remove barriers to implementing LAC, with the lack of a rural environment register (CAR).
- Reiterates the issue of “sampling” in LAC
- It eliminates the obligation for the project owner to publish in the Official Gazette an application for an environmental license for an activity or institution that is likely to cause significant environmental degradation.
- Removes changes in the operation of previously licensed broadcasting or telecommunications facilities from the licensing authority’s obligation to prove in cases where there is no increase in negative impacts.