Brazil’s lawmakers have voted, by an overwhelming majority, to weaken the nation’s environmental licensing system, overturning key protections that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had vetoed earlier this year.
Congress first passed the law, commonly called the “devastation bill” across national media outlets, in July 2025 despite widespread protests. In September, President Lula vetoed dozens of clauses in the bill to avoid the worst environmental setbacks.
In a Nov. 27 joint session on the General Environmental Licensing Law, Congress voted to overturn 56 of the 63 presential vetoes. The Chamber of Deputies voted 268-190 in favor of overriding the vetoes, while the Senate voted 50-18.
One of the impacts of the lawmakers’ vote is that businesses will no longer need to consider impacts on communities that haven’t completed their land titling process. Indigenous and Quilombola — descendants of enslaved people — communities will be heavily impacted.
The decision to overturn the vetoes has “cemented the institutionalization of environmental racism and deepened conflicts in traditional territories,” said Alice Dandara de Assis Correia, an attorney at the Brazilian nonprofit Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA).
“If this law stands, we will face high legal uncertainty and weaker social and environmental protections,” Correia added. According to ISA, 32.6% of all Indigenous territories and 80% of Quilombola communities would be excluded from impact studies, which until now were a prerequisite for environmental licensing.
Another overturned veto allows farms that have illegally deforested or grabbed land to operate and sell their products without an environmental license, according to the Climate Observatory, a Brazilian environmental watchdog organization.
Environmental licensing would also no longer be required for large infrastructure projects, such as paving the BR-319 highway across 885 kilometers (550 miles) of the Amazon, the Climate Observatory added. “In addition to being unconstitutional, [the law] puts the health and safety of Brazilians at risk, allows broad destruction of our ecosystems and violates the country’s climate goals,” the organization wrote in a statement.
In the coming days, Congress will vote on overturning the remaining seven presidential vetoes, including one of the most contentious clauses, which would allow an estimated 90% of medium-impact businesses to “self-license.” If overturned, companies will be able to automatically produce their own environmental licenses at the click of a button by filling out an online form.
Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva has announced that the government is considering challenging the Congressional overrides in court.
“We cannot treat environmental laws like they exist to hinder development. There is no development without a stable climate,” she said during a Nov. 28 interview on state-owned TV. “It is unconstitutional to override Article 225 of the Federal Constitution, which says that all citizens have the right to a healthy environment.”
Banner image: Brazil Environment Minister Marina Silva speaks out against the vote in Congress. Image courtesy of Fábio Rodrigues-Pozzebom/Agência Brasil.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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