📋 Tender Overview
Representatives of the Environmental Bodies of the Union, States and Municipalities approved, last Tuesday (2/7), a joint position on Bill 2.159/2021, which deals with the General Law of Environmental Licensing, currently under analysis in the Chamber of Deputies. The document was prepared under the National Tripartite Commission, equity and strategic instance of federative articulation of the National Environmental System (Sisnama).
Established 24 years ago, the Commission has a fundamental performance in shared and decentralized environmental management among federated entities, as provided for in the Federal Constitution, which attributes to the Union, states and municipalities common competence in the protection of the environment.
The collegiate is conducted by the leaders of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA), the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), as well as state and municipal managers responsible for the environmental bodies, indicated by the Brazilian Association of State Environmental Entities (ABEMA) Environment (Anamma).
The construction occurred jointly by the members of the Commission with active participation of states and municipalities.
The position points out that the analyzes and proposals were based on the experiences experienced by the three spheres of government with the implementation of environmental licensing. Therefore, according to Tripartite, the action reflects the real complexity of the application of the norm throughout the national territory, both from legal and operational perspective.
In the text, the Commission recognizes the importance of a general law of environmental licensing that promotes normative clarity, legal certainty and agility in processes, without giving up the effectiveness of environmental protection and federative cooperation.
Among the considerations identified in the position, tripartite highlights the absence of forecast of minimum national guidelines for environmental licensing, as, in the evaluation of the collegiate, it can lead to the isolated definition of procedures by the federative entities and compromise the functioning of Sisnama. This is this role of coordination and federative agreement is played by the National Environmental Council (Conama), central instance in the definition of general rules and general classes and in promoting cooperation between entities.
The improper application of the adhesion and Commitment License (LAC) was also highlighted. The Commission evaluates that the instrument is fundamental to give agility to low -risk enterprises and foster local economies. However, it warns that its extent to specific enterprises of greater impact, such as duplications and pavements of highways and railways, compromises the declaratory nature of the instrument and weakens the preventive logic of environmental licensing.
Another point highlighted in the position is related to the creation of Special Environmental Licensing (LAE) for projects considered strategic. Although the proposal represents a relevant contribution to speeding up to certain enterprises, according to the representatives of Tripartite, the provision of single phase proceedings, with extinguished deadlines, can severely compromise the quality of analysis and represents a serious risk to the proper identification and mitigation of environmental impacts. The measure, in practice, weakens environmental control and legal certainty of processes, warns the members of the three spheres.
The position of the collegiate will be sent to the Rapporteur of the PL, in the coming weeks, as a technical and federative contribution to the legislative process. According to representatives of the Commission, the expectation is that the debate within the House of Representatives represents an opportunity to improve the proposal under construction, with effective alternatives to the risks identified in the document.
Check out the full positioning.
