The Senate, on Wednesday, divides opinions of parliamentarians and members of civil society.
The Parliamentary Front of Agriculture (FPA), for example, celebrated the approval. The rapporteur of the bill, former Minister of Agriculture and Senator Tereza Cristina (PP-MS), who is part of this group of parliamentarians, stressed that, by making the rules clearer, the project also strengthens supervision and foresees more severe penalties for environmental crimes. That is, it would be promoting development with environmental responsibility.
In the opinion of Senator Marcos Rogério (PL-RO), the endorsement to the bill is an responses to the ills of Brazil, with a text that is a “radius of hope” to a country that wants to advance with sustainability.
Senator Leila Barros (PDT-DF) pointed out that “the defense of the environment is a stone clause of our commitment to the future. It is a constitutional duty, it is the value of Brazilian society and a requirement of the increasingly attentive and vigilant international community.”
According to her, Brazil today lives a reconquest moment of its environmental credibility. The senator argued that this positive image becomes real opportunities for our country, either in diplomatic or economic terms.
Criticism of environmentalists
Former minister and state deputy, Carlos Minc (PSB-RJ), disagrees and stated that the law’s approval represents a 80-year setback. According to Minc, on the eve of COP and Brazil advances in the agreement with the European community, this setback will feed those who for protectionist – environmental and non -environmental reasons – want to wage the agreement.
The Public Policy Coordinator of the Climate Observatory, Suely Araújo, in turn, said that the Senate approved the implosion of environmental licensing in the country. “Licensing will become, in most processes, a button tightness, without environmental study and without environmental impact evaluation, ‘he explained.
For WWF-Brazil’s conservation and public policy expert Ana Carolina Crisostomo, “it is unacceptable that, in full climate emergency, the Senate is to further weaken environmental control, violating international agreements and isolating Brazil from global good practices”.
According to the expert, it is a decision that drives Brazil away from environmental leadership and plunges the country into a dangerous path of silent destruction, inequality and impunity.
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According to Greenpeace Brasil’s political manager, Mariana Mota, Special Environmental License (LAE) gives a perfect bypass to approve controversial projects. “This is not agility, but a dangerous shortcut, whose result will be works without the sieve of those who understand real impacts, and the country paying the bill in conflicts, degradation and disasters announced,” he added.
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Letter of support
Even before the Senate vote, 98 productive sector entities released an open letter supporting the approval of the Environmental Licensing Bill. Among these entities are, for example, the Confederation of Agriculture (CNA), the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) and the Brazilian Institute of Petroleum and Gas (IBP).
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The text advocates the existence of transparent rules, with objective definitions and criteria that streamline and make environmental licensing for any types of activities and enterprises predictable.
