Brazilian science has united against Bill 2.159/2021, which will bring setbacks to environmental licensing in Brazil if it is approved this Tuesday (15) by the Chamber of Deputies. A manifesto approved by the SBPC (Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science), with the endorsement of more than 160 institutions, details the impacts of the measure on the environment.
“The bill solemnly ignores the state of climate emergency in which humanity finds itself, and the fact that four Brazilian biomes (Amazon rainforest, Cerrado, Pantana and Caatinga) are very close to the so-called ‘points of no return’. If these points are crossed, these biomes could collapse”, says an excerpt from the document.
The manifesto points out that the new law violates international agreements and represents an affront to the science produced in Brazil and around the world. Among the harmful effects of the Bill are: a potential increase in carbon emissions, exemption from licensing for agribusiness, disconnection of licensing from the granting of water use, a threat to Conservation Units, threats to the rights of traditional peoples and communities, weakened environmental conditions, the lack of a minimum list of activities subject to licensing, as well as the creation of a Special Environmental License.
“The 1988 Federal Constitution provides for environmental licensing as a means of guaranteeing an ecologically balanced environment, a fundamental right, and imposes on the public authorities and the community the duty to defend and preserve it. The bill threatens this right, which belongs to all Brazilians. A fundamental right for a minimally promising future in a world in a state of ‘climate emergency’,” the text stresses.
Read the full manifesto:
Manifesto of Brazilian Science on Bill of Law (PL) No. 2.159/2021
Current environmental licensing is under serious threat. It is the main instrument of the National Environmental Policy (Law No. 6.938/1981), which guarantees constitutional protection of the rights of the Brazilian community to an ecologically balanced environment for present and future generations. And this threat comes, unfortunately, from the National Congress.
Bill 2.159/2021 is about to be voted on in the Chamber of Deputies. This bill represents the most serious setback to the country’s environmental protection system. It weakens the rules and mechanisms for analyzing, controlling and inspecting potentially degrading undertakings and activities. It also solemnly ignores the state of climate emergency in which humanity finds itself, and the fact that four Brazilian biomes (the Amazon rainforest, Cerrado, Pantana and Caatinga) are very close to the so-called “points of no return”. If these points are crossed, these biomes could collapse and stop providing their multiple ecosystem services. Science has already shown, with ample evidence, that in order to avoid such a collapse, it is urgently necessary to halt the destruction of native vegetation, fight fires and environmental degradation and start large-scale restoration of these biomes, including the Atlantic Forest. Incidentally, the bill also amends the Atlantic Forest Law, a biome that has already lost 76% of its original cover, leaving the remnants of mature forest vulnerable to deforestation.
In addition to threatening biomes and the well-being of Brazilians, the approval of this bill is incompatible with the commitments made by Brazil under the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, among other international acts, including those that protect fundamental human rights. If approved, the country’s legislature will cast doubt on Brazil’s leadership role in global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. And this in the midst of the COP 30 to be held in Belém do Pará at the end of this year.
Clearly, the bill is a threat to the Federal Constitution and the rights of Brazilians. But it is also an affront to the science produced by scientists in Brazil and around the world, including those gathered at the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science, the Amazon Scientific Panel and the IPCC. This affront is briefly illustrated below, should the Bill be approved.
Potential increase in carbon emissions. The proposal for a License by Adhesion and Commitment (LAC) will allow automatic licenses to be issued, based only on the entrepreneur’s self-declaration, for medium-sized enterprises with medium polluting potential. This process disregards prior technical analysis and the future effects of the LAC on national greenhouse gas emissions and on natural resources, including the country’s rich biodiversity. The bill also jeopardizes the role of the state in exercising its capacity and duty to prevent damage, since the entrepreneur will be relieved of most of his obligations.
Exemption from licensing for agribusiness. Simply filling in a self-declaratory form (LAC) will be enough to guarantee exemption from licensing, without any verification of environmental impacts or commitments made under environmental regularization programs. From a scientific point of view, this proposal puts biomes, already threatened by a path of “no return”, in a critical situation. Something that will harm agribusiness itself. For example, there is already sufficient scientific evidence that the country’s rainfall regime has undergone significant changes (reduction) with impacts on the production of food and commodities. These changes are not only being caused by global climate change, but by changes in the native vegetation that covers these areas. Considering that 90% of agriculture in Brazil is not irrigated and depends on native vegetation to produce rain, weakening environmental licensing will literally be a “shot in the foot” for national agriculture.
Decoupling licensing from the granting of water use. The bill currently before the House of Representatives stipulates that environmental licensing should not be linked to water use concessions, disregarding the fact that water use concessions are an instrument of the National Water Resources Policy for water management, which is fundamental to guaranteeing water security and access to water in quality and quantity. In this way, the analysis of environmental licensing will be totally hampered for projects that use water (such as hydroelectric plants, public supply reservoirs, sewage and effluent treatment plants). This completely ignores the progressive reduction in the availability of water in the soil due to the advance of the reduction in rainfall already suffered by vast regions of the country. In some biomes (Cerrado, for example) more than half of the municipalities already have a reduction in surface water of around 30%. Furthermore, the fragmentation of licensing, in isolation from permits, will increase conflicts and tend to aggravate impacts related to climatic events with regard to water.
Threat to Conservation Units (UCs). The text currently before the House provides for the assessment of impacts and the definition of conditions only when there are Conservation Units or their buffer zones in the regions directly affected by the projects. As it stands, therefore, the text excludes all PAs, federal, state and municipal, from the assessment of indirect environmental impacts. This is short-sighted, since it ignores the spatial and functional connectivity between different regions with different native vegetation cover. The opinions of the management bodies (ICMBio and the competent state and municipal bodies) involved will not be binding, allowing licensing bodies without the legal competence and technical capacity to rule on the issues mentioned to do so.
Threats to the rights of traditional peoples and communities. If the bill is approved, around 80% of quilombola territories (TQs) and 32.6% of Indigenous Lands (TIs), which are areas awaiting titling and homologation, will be ignored in environmental licensing processes. No measures are planned to prevent, mitigate or compensate for socio-environmental impacts or to control deforestation. This calls into question not only their rights, but also the role that these peoples and communities play in environmental conservation and the provision of environmental services. A large part of the rainfall regime and carbon storage in native vegetation is maintained by these populations. Indigenous lands in the Amazon, for example, act as a great “air conditioner” for the landscape. Temperatures inside Tis are up to 2-5 oC lower than in the surrounding area. The Bill does not pay attention to these services, because the actions of the authorities involved, as well as the technical analysis and the requirement for conditions, are restricted only to cases of impacts in the areas of direct influence of the potentially degrading project, without considering indirect impacts or impacts on the scale of the landscape.
Weakenedenvironmental conditions. The bill limits the entrepreneur’s liability for damage caused or aggravated by the project itself, including in the case of major projects that put pressure on public services or encourage deforestation and land grabbing. This lack of accountability could further aggravate the advance of illegal deforestation and land grabbing, especially in the Amazon. Currently, around 50% of deforestation in this biome takes place on public land, especially in the so-called “Undesignated Public Forests”. These are forests that are awaiting their destination, by law, by the federal and state governments, for conservation or sustainable use of natural resources.
Absence of a minimum list of activities subject to licensing: The bill’s proposal is that states and municipalities will decide, in isolation, what to license. This will lead to profound distortions between regions, with similar activities being treated differently, where technical-scientific criteria are ignored depending on local political pressure. The result will be a fragmented system, ignorant from a scientific point of view and subject merely to the logic of local and regional government. The lack of harmonization of rules will also increase legal uncertainty.
Creation of the Special Environmental License (LAE): The amendment transfers to the Government Council, a political body linked to the Presidency of the Republic, the power to define national guidelines and classify projects as “strategic”, without clear criteria, transparency or social control, breaking with the technical and legal principles of environmental licensing. Here again, science will be an adjunct at best. The LAE will be granted through a single-phase procedure, i.e. without prior analysis, installation and operation in separate phases. Without further details, this amendment could institutionalize the accelerated release of projects that require more in-depth analysis. Numerous scientific studies have already shown, for example, the serious socio-environmental effects of poorly planned infrastructure investments. Even under the current licensing system, which is stricter than the one proposed by the bill. It is known, for example, that 70% of all deforestation in the Amazon is concentrated around infrastructure projects. This LAE could therefore worsen this condition, especially in initiatives that seek to open and pave highways (e.g. BR-319) and railroads (e.g. Ferrogrão) and explore for oil and gas in ecologically sensitive areas (e.g. the Equatorial Margin).
Finally, in addition to the clear threat to constitutional precepts, the proposed bill violates a series of fundamental laws for the protection of ecosystems and their biodiversity, such as the National Environmental Policy (Law 6938/1981), the National System of Conservation Units (Law 9985/2000), the Environmental Crimes Law (Law 9.605/1998), among others, in addition to weakening the National Environmental System (SISNAMA). Therefore, the discussion on improvements to environmental licensing needs to be carried out responsibly and with the broad participation of society, especially the scientific community.
Final considerations. The changes proposed to the environmental licensing system by Bill of Law (PL) No. 2.159/2021 seem to favor particular or sectoral interests, as they ignore the countless scientific evidences that demonstrate the seriousness of the climate and environmental crisis underway in the country. The 1988 Federal Constitution provides for environmental licensing as a means of guaranteeing an ecologically balanced environment, a fundamental right, and imposes on the government and the community the duty to defend and preserve it. The bill threatens this right, which belongs to all Brazilians. A fundamental right for a minimally promising future in a world in a state of “climate emergency”.
Cover photo: Madeira River. Carlos Durigan/IPAM