Environmental Licensing: When a Veto Is an Act of Protection - Brazil - OPINION. August 15, 2025
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- Aug 14
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 15
Environmental Licensing: When a Veto Is an Act of Protection - Brazil - OPINION
August 15, 2025
Last Friday, August 8, 2025, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed the General Environmental Licensing Law (Law 15.190/2025), but vetoed 63 provisions considered particularly harmful to the environment, legal certainty, and social rights.
Among the most relevant points, the restriction of the License by Adhesion and Commitment (LAC) to projects with low pollution potential is noteworthy. By preventing the expansion of this mechanism to medium-risk activities, the government prevents projects with significant impact from undergoing simplified licensing without proper technical analysis. In a country that already faces daily oversight challenges, forgoing this step would be reckless, to say the least.
Another important veto concerns the national standardization of licensing criteria. Allowing each state to establish rules without a minimum standard would open the door to a dangerous "environmental war" between federative entities, where the protection of nature would be a bargaining chip to attract investment. By maintaining national parameters, the country preserves predictability and legal certainty, essential for both the environment and the productive sector.
The text also protected the Atlantic Forest, which, although already extremely depleted, still provides vital environmental services and harbors unique biodiversity. Removing its special protection would further weaken a national heritage that cannot be replenished in human timeframes.
Indigenous peoples and quilombola communities were also subject to vetoes that guarantee their participation in licensing processes. Excluding these voices would not only be an affront to constitutional rights but also a direct threat to the preservation of territories that have historically been barriers against environmental degradation.
Another notable point is the veto on the exemption from the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) analysis for properties not yet verified. This means that environmental regularization cannot be simply a declaration on paper; it must undergo technical scrutiny to be effective in licensing.
By vetoing the limitation of compensatory measures to direct impacts only, the government recognizes that projects also generate indirect pressures on water resources, fauna, flora, and even public services such as health and transportation. To deny these impacts would be to turn a blind eye to reality.
Conservation Units were also spared a setback. By maintaining the mandatory reporting requirement from managing agencies, licensing reinforces the role of these areas as protected areas, not just as decorative figures on environmental maps.
Finally, the decision to maintain financial institutions' responsibility for the environmental damage caused by projects they finance is symbolic. Linking credit to compliance with environmental legislation sends a clear message: sustainability is not a cost, it is a requirement.
The vetoes do not mean paralysis. The Government has already submitted a new bill to Congress with constitutional urgency and promises a provisional measure to give immediate effect to the Special Environmental License (LAE) for strategic activities. Therefore, it is a matter of finding a balance between agility and responsibility. Now, we await further proceedings in the National Congress, which will decide whether to maintain or overturn the vetoes and what the future of environmental licensing will be in the country.
In times of climate emergency and accelerated biodiversity loss, legislating on environmental licensing requires more than simplifying processes: it requires the courage to say "no" when the price of saying "yes" is irreversible degradation.
If we want truly sustainable development, we must understand that protecting the environment is not about hindering progress, but rather ensuring its existence tomorrow.
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Author: Bianca Vieira
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