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What Brazil’s New President Means For Its Environmental Laws

Anti-government demonstrators walk past a Brazilian flag during a demonstration in favor of the impeachment of Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/JOEDSON ALVES
Anti-government demonstrators walk past a Brazilian flag during a demonstration in favor of the impeachment of Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/JOEDSON ALVES

As the suspension of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Thursday triggers a political reshuffling, environmentalists in Latin America’s largest ailing economy worry that powers in the new administration favor infrastructure development and financial recovery over environmental laws.

As it is now customary in multiple countries, Brazil requires environmental assessments prior to construction projects. But the Senate is now considering a bill that would give fast-track status to projects like roads, dams or ports deemed in the national interest by the president. That would allow developers to move forward simply by saying an environmental impact study is in the works, but bar agencies from halting the project once construction begins. Moreover, there is a proposed constitutional amendment to eliminate environmental licensing altogether. These proposals aren’t new, but their political backing could get a push within Brazil’s new interim government.

For environmentalists, these proposals are ludicrous, as Brazil is still grappling with the aftermath of the collapse of an iron ore dam that caused the largest environmental disaster in Brazilian history. “The new government is taking power under the oath to revive the economy,” said Claudio Angelo, head of communications at Climate Observatory, a Brazilian nonprofit. “In order to do this they all identify as paramount [the ability to] make environmental licensing easier, and they have the majority in Congress,” Angelo told ThinkProgress.

Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, has been battling a corruption scandal for months and has grown highly unpopular as the country’s economy went into free fall. The Senate moved for her suspension after overnight discussions, the New York Times reported, and now Rousseff will step down for up to 180 days while she stands trial for allegedly manipulating the country’s budget figures.

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Brazilian Ranchers Aren’t Cutting Down As Much Forest Anymore. Here’s Why.Climate by CREDIT: AP PHOTO/ANDRE PENNER, FILE Pressure from environmental groups and federal prosecutors is helping…thinkprogress.orgFormer Vice President Michel Temer, a former Rousseff ally who has been convicted of violating campaign finance limits, is now the interim leader. Environmentalists reached in Brazil said Temer and Rousseff share similar questionable views on environmental laws, and that Temer’s official policy document doesn’t mention climate change or the Amazon rainforest. “I would say it is a bad time, or will be a bad time for the environment in Brazil,” Angelo said.

Brazilian presidents hold formidable constitutional powers, and though they still need congressional support to enact ordinary legislation, presidents have tools to legislate without congressional approval. Brazil is a $2.2 trillion economy — the world’s sixth largest economy — and owns roughly 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest.

Experts reached in Brazil predict much fighting around environmental laws, but note Temer’s inner circle will likely include new ministers who favor weakening environmental laws, like Senator Romero Jucá, who is behind the constitutional amendment to do away with environmental licensing. And then there’s Senator Blairo Maggi, a soy magnate and former governor of the jungle-rich state of Matto Grosso, who is expected to become the agriculture minister and “is very connected with the [agribusiness] lobby,” said Emilio Lèbre La Rovere, professor of energy and environmental planning at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. “In the past [he] has expressed a lot of criticism against environmental laws and regulations,” Lèbre told ThinkProgress.

Conservative groups close to Temer are already putting on his table a long list of attacks against social and environmental issues

For Greenpeace, meanwhile, the main concern now is the rainforest. Marcio Astrini, lead campaigner for Greenpeace Brazil, said suspended hydroelectric dams like those planned for the Tapajós River — a major tributary of the Amazon River — could be proposed again. “We are really concerned that the next government could try to go ahead with this project, even with a large number of negative impacts,” he told ThinkProgress. Brazil had plans to build a series of dams on the main stream of the Tapajós River, though critics said dams would flood national parks, indigenous lands, and other protected areas, accelerating the destruction of the Amazon.

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If the bill or the constitutional amendment were to pass, they would apply on dams like those planned for the Tapajós and require little if any environmental assessments, activists said. While concerns are high, all reached said it may be too soon to know how much the new administration will act on weakening environmental laws, or how successful it will be. “What we know is that conservative groups close to Temer are already putting on his table a long list of attacks against social and environmental issues,” Astrini said.

One silver lining may be the country’s participation in December’s Paris Agreement. Brazil is the world’s seventh biggest greenhouse gas emitter, yet Lèbre said so far the country has had sharp reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and that Paris targets are “quite feasible.” However, “long-term, deep decarbonization, will depend on upon the adoption of a long-term low carbon development strategy focusing on the building of sustainable infrastructure,” he said.