Environmental Licensing: the new proposals for its (de)regulation in processing in the National Congress

Abstract

The paper proposes to delineate the path of licensing as an instrument of brazilian environmental policy, in the light of the notion of state regulation, extracting from it analytical elements to understand the reformist agenda of the National Congress on the subject under discussion in the legislature closed in 2018. From an  analytic-descriptive approach  supported by bibliographical and documentary research, it has been found that the proposed institutional changes are informed by a perception of environmental licensing as an excessively bureaucratized process that is an obstacle to development and is directed towards its simplification, capable of giving greater speed to the granting of licenses. In the end, it is concluded that the new rules bring, in their midst, the narrowing of the possibilities of society's participation in the process, as well as public agencies’ participation, , and the accelration of the procedural process for the issuance of licenses, affecting the potential of the instrument to effectively fulfill the purposes outlined in the environmental policy of preventing and mitigating the impacts of socioeconomic activities on the environment.