Brazil’s “devastation bill” is a major embarrassment for President Lula ahead of COP30

Brazil is going backwards on environmental legislation.

On 17 July 2025, Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies passed Bill 2159/2021. It has been widely described as the “devastation bill” and massively weakens the country’s environmental and rainforest protections.

The bill passed with 267 votes for the bill and 116 against. The bill was approved by the Senate in May 2025.

Before the Senate vote, Brazil’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change put out a press release, which states that the bill,

significantly disrupts existing regulations on the topic and poses a risk to environmental and social security in the country. Furthermore, it directly violates the Federal Constitution, which, in Article 225, guarantees Brazilian citizens the right to an ecologically balanced environment, requiring a prior environmental impact study for the installation of any construction project or activity that could cause environmental damage.

Marina Silva, Brazil’s Environment Minister, described the bill as “the burial of environmental licensing”.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has until the end of this week to either approve or veto the bill. Avaaz has put out a petition with more than 580,000 signatories demanding that President Lula vetoes the bill. Rainforest Rescue has another petition opposing the bill.

On 8 July 2025, more than 350 organisations in Brazil signed on to a statement opposing the bill by Climate Observatory:

The bill represents a major institutional setback for Brazil and the collapse of over 40 years of national environmental legislation. The text, as it stands, undermines the constitutional foundations of environmental policy and violates essential rights, such as access to healthcare and an ecologically balanced environment.

Self-licensing

The bill would allow companies to issue their own environmental permits for projects classified as “medium-sized”. There would be no independent reviews, no environmental impact assessments, and no participation of local communities. Instead companies would get an environmental license by filling in an online form describing how their project does not break any environmental legislation.

Suely Araújo of Climate Observatory told The Guardian that this will affect about 90% of licensing procedures in Brazil. Companies would be allowed to destroy the rainforest for mining projects, infrastructure, and agribusiness operations. Araújo said that,

“We’re seeing the implosion of Brazil’s environmental licensing system, that is going to become full self-licensing, where a company just clicks a button and the permit gets printed.”

“Strategic” projects

Amendment 198 is perhaps even worse than the self-licensing provisions in the bill. Introduced by Senate President Davi Alcolumbre on the last minute before the senate vote, Amendment 198 creates a Special Environmental License. The amendment allows the Government Council, which is a body with no technical expertise in environmental issues, to write national guidelines and recommend “strategic” projects.

Amendment 198 increases the risk of shady deals, undue influence, and corruption. Destructive mining projects on Indigenous Peoples’ lands could be labelled “strategic” and pushed through with minimal technical analysis.

The amendment could be used to approve oil exploration in the Amazon.

It could also be used to approve the 870-kilometre Highway BR-319, which connects Manaus in Amazonas and Porto Velho in Rondônia. The road was opened under the military government in 1973, but deteriorated quickly. By 1986 it was impassable. Today, a stretch of 400 kilometres cannot be driven for most of the year. Rebuilding the road would open up the rainforest to deforestation and would affect 40 conservation areas, and 50 Indigenous territories, including the territory of Indigenous Peoples living in voluntary isolation.

COP30: Brazil is going backwards

This bill is a serious embarrassment for Brazil and President Lula coming as it does just a few months before the country hosts this year’s UN climate meeting (COP30) in Belém.

“This law is a serious setback and will shape how Brazil is viewed by those who see it as a potential environmental leader,” Araújo told The Guardian.

Before the vote, Nilto Tatto, the environmental caucus coordinator in the Chamber of Deputies, told Mongabay that, “Brazil, as president of the COP, cannot demonstrate to the whole world that it is going backwards in terms of caring for the environment by attacking its main environmental law.”

By voting for the bill Brazil has demonstrated clearly that it is going backwards. At a frightening speed.

In a post on Greenpeace’s website, Gabriela Nepomuceno, Public Policy specialist at Greenpeace Brazil said,

“This outcome shows that our lawmakers are more concerned with dismantling than strengthening environmental legislation, effectively stripping the State of its ability to prevent and mitigate the impacts of projects across the country."

The text of the devastation bill does not even mention climate change.