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Brazil’s conservative-led Congress on Thursday reinstated much of a bill that makes it easier for companies to secure environmental permits, infuriating the leftist government and green groups.<\/p>\n
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had vetoed dozens of provisions of what has been dubbed the “Devastation Bill”, but Congress has the power to override those actions.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers reversed around 80 percent of Lula’s vetoes in a major blow to his government just days after Brazil wrapped up the hosting of COP30 UN climate talks.<\/p>\n
The bill “kills environmental licensing in the country”, said the Climate Observatory, a coalition of NGOs, vowing to take legal action against it.<\/p>\n
For some permits, all that will be required is a simple declaration of the company’s commitment to preserving the environment.<\/p>\n
This move “contradicts the government’s environmental and climate efforts, right after hosting COP30. Very bad news,” Institutional Relations Minister Gleisi Hoffmann wrote on X.<\/p>\n
The government had warned a day earlier that overturning the vetoes could have “immediate and hard-to-reverse effects,” citing the “alarming rise in extreme climate disasters.”<\/p>\n
Lawmaker Sostenes Cavalcante — an ally of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro — celebrated the move, accusing Lula of seeking to “undermine agribusiness, the only sector still performing well economically in Brazil.”<\/p>\n
The Climate Observatory accused congressional leaders of hypocrisy for approving what it called “the worst environmental setback in Brazil’s history” just days after appearing as “climate defenders” at COP30.<\/p>\n
The NGO said the bill will impact everything from major new agricultural projects to mining projects to the controversial paving of a major highway in the Amazon, which will be exempt from environmental licensing.<\/p>\n
Lula boasts an overall positive environmental record, having overseen a sharp decline in deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.<\/p>\n
However, he came under fire from environmentalists for backing a controversial oil-exploration project near the mouth of the Amazon River, which began in October.<\/p>\n
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