What to expect from environmental licensing in Brazil with the Devastation Bill? Brazil - OPINION June 16, 2025
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
What to expect from environmental licensing in Brazil with the Devastation Bill? Brazil - OPINION
On 5 June 2025, we celebrated 43 years since the first and most important UN environmental conference. But this year, I felt a little uncomfortable and wondered what we should be celebrating on 5 June, World Environment Day, in the country where I live - Brazil? After years of studying and working in the environmental field, I realise that I always mention this conference in my speeches - in the classroom, in debates, etc. I recognise that it is an important milestone in environmental history, as it reminds us of a historic moment when humanity came together in defence of its existence and environmental well-being in response to the environmental disasters that were ravaging several countries.
The culmination of the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the development of urbanisation in Brazil were key factors in changing attitudes towards the relationship we need to establish with the environment.
As a species, we had to take a difficult step: recognising the existence of a global environmental crisis associated with human activities in their various forms – industrial, agricultural, and commercial. But this step brought an important legacy for humanity.
The first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in 1972 in Stockholm, Sweden. It became a historic milestone and paved the way for several other world conferences on the environment, which, together with the creation of treaties, protocols, and agreements, established humanity's commitment to building a safe and balanced environment.
Given this, we can highlight that one of its legacies was the creation of environmental policies worldwide. It is worth noting that, after Brazil spent 21 years under an undemocratic regime, in 1988, we had the opportunity to draft a Constitution for the Federative Republic, which was able to internalise the environmental concerns that the world population was aware of.
Thus, our Constitution supported and consolidated the creation of environmental management policies through a chapter dedicated to this topic, Chapter V, which, in Article 225, indicates the obligation of public authorities and the community to defend an ecologically balanced environment. To this end, the CF establishes the need for a prior environmental impact study as a requirement for the installation or operation of any work or activity that may cause environmental impact.
The Magna Carta provided the basis for other legal provisions that created mechanisms that society must comply with to carry out economic, industrial, and service activities, among others, such as the National Environmental Policy (PNMA), created by Law No. 6,938/1981 and some Resolutions of the National Environment Council (CONAMA) No. 001/1986 and 237/1997.
In all these documents, we can find something that extends the determination of the need for environmental studies before the execution of human activities that have significant potential for environmental impact.
Law No. 6,938/1981 establishes, in its Article 9, the ‘assessment of environmental impacts and the licensing and review of activities that are effectively or potentially polluting’ as instruments for achieving the preservation and recovery of environmental quality.
Subsequently, Resolution No. 1/1986 establishes the criteria and procedures for Environmental Impact Assessment in Brazil, and 11 years after its existence, CONAMA published Resolution No. 237/1997, which links Environmental Impact Assessment with Environmental Licensing.
The three aforementioned provisions are based on the Federal Constitution and, together, create an essential legal framework for guaranteeing the rights to an ecologically balanced environment. They are, therefore, essential tools for regulating economic activities and promoting environmental sustainability.
In practical terms, current Brazilian environmental legislation equips environmental agencies to ensure that environmental licensing is effective in controlling activities that cause environmental impact, as it requires environmental studies and the preparation of plans for managing environmental impacts.
These studies contain environmental data that is extremely important for understanding the environment and its reaction to the impacts caused by human activities, providing a basis for the development of measures to mitigate or compensate for environmental impacts.
However, the environmental gains achieved in the past, after the Brazilian redemocratisation process, are now on the agenda of the Brazilian federal congress and are being reviewed in terms of their mandatory nature. This is the case with Brazilian environmental legislation on environmental licensing, and Bill No. 2,159/2021 is a classic example of legal loosening on environmental issues, which often occurs in an environment of strong criticism of the environmental restrictions imposed by Brazilian legislation.
The bill brings to the fore old desires that had been supplanted by environmental awareness on the part of a society more knowledgeable about its rights and duties. It proposes to regulate item IV of the Federal Constitution on the mandatory requirement for a prior environmental impact study for the execution of anthropic activities. However, it also amends important provisions such as the Environmental Crimes Law (No. 9,605/1998) and the Law on the National System of Conservation Units (No. 9,985/2000).
Although it is important to create a law that regulates environmental licensing, it is necessary to respect the constitutionality of previous laws and reinforce the criteria for obtaining an Environmental Licence.
Given this understanding, it should be noted that Bill 2,159/2021, nicknamed the ‘Devastation Bill,’ contains a series of items that significantly relax the legal provisions related to environmental licensing and the application of the Environmental Crimes Law.
The bill values, among other things, speed and procedural economy.
To this end, it stipulates that environmental licensing may even take place in a single phase, or through voluntary adherence by the entrepreneur, using self-declaration, without necessarily respecting the individualised analysis of each licence — both known as Licença por Adesão e Compromisso (LAC) and Licença Ambiental Única (LAU).
Another noteworthy item is the exemption from environmental licensing for certain activities, including public utility services or activities related to the promotion of basic sanitation. In addition, the bill also determines the separation of the granting and use and subdivision of land from the environmental licensing process.
It also addresses the autonomy and competence of Brazilian environmental agencies by proposing that entrepreneurs be allowed to request adjustments to the terms of reference, which is a document prepared by the environmental agency to specify the content that must be presented in environmental studies.
A point that is strongly emphasised in the bill is the creation of maximum deadlines for obtaining environmental licences, which is in line with the bill's provisions on the speed of these processes. According to a consultation carried out in the public document on the Senate website, the maximum deadline for obtaining an environmental licence is ten (10) months, if it is a preliminary licence requiring an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). For some, this seems like a reasonable amount of time to obtain an environmental licence. However, we must consider whether it is possible to carry out a study as complex as an EIA in less than ten months.
And in the face of so many changes, the issue has come to the fore as a matter of public concern. Many organisations and institutions have spoken out against the bill, as has the Minister for the Environment, Marina Silva, who has used the media to highlight her concern about the setbacks that this bill represents for Brazilian legislation.
Finally, to celebrate World Environment Day in Brazil, it is essential to remember that, although our legislation satisfactorily provides for the maintenance of environmental processes, we are still subject to harmful actions. An example of this is the environmental disasters that struck the country in 2015 and 2019, due to the collapse of mining tailings dams located in Mariana and Brumadinho, in Minas Gerais, respectively.
On this World Environment Day, we need to answer some urgent questions: What can we expect from Brazil in a scenario where this bill is approved? And, above all, what can we do to combat the setbacks to which environmental legislation is subject?
On this day, let us remember our history and, even more, strengthen our struggle for a more just and equal nation, where institutions effectively enforce environmental policies, in full respect for the Federal Constitution.
Environmental hugs!
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