A new law in Brazil could cause “significant environmental damage and human rights violations” and represents a “decades” of protections in Brazil, especially for the Amazon, said a UN expert in BBC News.
The plans to accelerate approvals for development projects have been criticized by Astrid Puentes Riaño, a special United Nations rapporteur, while the country is preparing to welcome the COP30 Climate summit this year.
The legislators have adopted plans to simplify environmental licenses for infrastructure, including roads, dams, energy and mines this month, although the president did not officially approve the bill.
Critics have nicknamed it the “devastation bill” and say that this could lead to environmental abuses and deforestation.
Supporters say that a new national license regime would simplify the long and complex process that companies face to prove to the authorities that planned developments do not cause unacceptable environmental damage.
By virtue of modifications, some developers would be able to emerge from their environmental impact thanks to an online form for projects deemed smaller – a move, according to supporters, would reduce bureaucracy, but that criticisms think that it is a major concern.
Ms. Riaño told the BBC that she feared that lighter regulations “apply to certain mining projects” and that “an impact on the Amazon region”.
She also said that it was “very worried” of the automatic renewal renewal plans for certain projects where no major change has taken place, claiming: “This will prevent environmental impact assessments on these projects. Some projects will include mining projects or infrastructure projects where a complete evaluation is necessary.
“This will also lead to deforestation. The changes or the continuations of the projects could mean deforestation in Amazon without appropriate evaluation.”
Many deforestation and landing of land in the Amazon have been motivated by agriculture and mining, sometimes illegally – but Ms. Riaño said that the “back” bill on efforts to prevent this.
His intervention comes two months after the publication of a new analysis showing that large expanses of Amazon were destroyed in 2024, with forest fires supplied by drought adding to artificial deforestation pressures.
Under the new law, environmental agencies would have 12 months – extensible to 24 – to make a decision on the advisability of granting a license for strategic projects. If this deadline was missed, a license could be automatically granted.
Supporters say that this would give companies a certainty by preventing delays that tormented projects, including hydroelectric dams for clean energy or railway lines to transport cereals.
Ms. Riaño said it included the need for more effective systems, but the assessments must be “complete” and “science based”.
The law would also relax the obligation to consult the communities of Aboriginal or traditional Quilombola – descendants of Afro -Brazilian slaves – in certain situations unless they are directly affected.
The United Nations experts have raised fears that accelerated assessments will abolish a certain participation and affect human rights.
Supporters of the bill say that it will encourage economic development, including for renewable energy projects, detained to develop the economy and reduce costs for businesses and the state.
But criticism fear to weaken environmental protections could increase the risk of environmental disasters and violate indigenous rights.
In particular, United Nations experts argue that he could contradict constitutional rights guaranteeing the right to an ecologically balanced environment – which means that legal disputes could expect us.
The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies approved the bill and is now awaiting presidential approval.
President Lula Da Silva has until August 8 to decide to approve or veto to the new law.
The Minister of the Environment and Climate Change of Brazil, Marina Silva, firmly opposed the bill, condemning him as a “death kick” to environmental protections.
But she disagreed with the president on other questions in the past, including proposals to explore oil drilling in the Amazon basin.
Even if President Vetos, there is a chance that conservative congress can try to overthrow this.
The Brazil climate observatory has described the “largest environmental setback” bill since the military dictatorship in Brazil, in which the construction of roads and an agricultural expansion has led to an increase in Amazon’s deforestation and the displacement of many Aboriginal people.
Ms. Riaño said that Brazil scientists believe that the bill “will increase the protections by more than 18 million hectares in the country, the size of Uruguay”, adding that “the consequences are enormous”.
