petition

ADI 7919 (General Law on Environmental Licensing and Law on Special Environmental Licensing) - petition

Litigation

Sabin

Sabin Litigation

Filing Year For Action

In December, 2025, the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) and the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), accompanied by several expert entities, filed a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) with a request for a precautionary measure proposed with the objective of questioning the constitutionality of provisions of the new General Law on Environmental Licensing (Law 15.190/2025) and the law that provides for Special Environmental Licensing - LAE (Law 15.300/2025). The petitioners allege that Law 15.190/2025 weakens the legal system, affronting the normative environmental protection, achieved even through jurisprudence in the Supreme Federal Court, and brings about a panorama of environmental regression in a period marked by climate change. They claim that the content of the challenged norms deepens existing deficiencies in the licensing process, generating instability in the commitments assumed by the country in the socio-environmental and climate agendas. 

It is argued that some of the weakening objectives of the new laws are: (i) the control and oversight of activities that degrade the environment and climate; (ii) the exercise of the institutional powers of the National Environmental System (Sisnama) and public bodies that participate in environmental licensing in the protection of socio-environmental rights; (iii) the commitments made by the country in the socio-environmental and climate agendas; (iv) good business and financial practices; and (v) provisions related to the federal pact. 

The authors highlight several unconstitutional aspects present in the regulations. It is pointed out that the General Law promotes excessive delegation to states and municipalities through normative fragmentation and omission in terms of general rules. It is argued that the General Law establishes, in several points, open and excessive delegation for licensing to states, municipalities, and the Federal District, and does not mention CONAMA, which goes against the legal system of powers to legislate and to license. 

The General Law exempts potentially polluting or degrading activities and projects from environmental licensing, such as road paving, maintenance dredging, and agricultural activities. It also weakens the requirement for the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) for these activities, preventing federative entities from issuing regulations and rendering the principles of prevention, precaution, and the polluter-pays principle ineffective. This hinders environmental control, especially of agricultural activities, which are responsible for 28% of greenhouse gas emissions. 

It is argued that the General Law establishes too many hypotheses for granting the License by Adhesion and Commitment (LAC), with provisions applicable to subnational entities, including projects with medium polluting potential and the possibility of its use for corrective operating licenses. This establishes a self-licensing procedure without adequate environmental safety and control. The use of the LAC implies limitations on environmental conditions and a lack of assessment of the synergistic and cumulative effects of the projects. It is argued that the General Law improperly waives the requirement for certificates and permits such as the certificate of use and occupation of urban land, which deepens the risks to vulnerable areas under urban territorial planning, such as favelas, hillsides, and riverbanks, which may be affected by projects licensed without municipal approval, causing territorial conflicts, expulsion of communities, devaluation of properties, and favoring urban land grabbing, generating risks to public health and the environment and institutionalizing environmental racism. 

It is argued that the establishment of the Special Environmental License (LAE), which combines three phases of licensing into one for "strategic projects," constitutes a material unconstitutionality. Regarding energy projects, the General Law excessively simplifies the parameters for licensing and establishing conditions, which encourages environmentally and climatically critical practices, such as the opening of new frontiers for oil exploration and the deforestation of the Legal Amazon, preventing the country from meeting its targets under the Paris Agreement. It is argued that the General Law facilitates the regularization of irregularly installed enterprises through a Corrective Operating License (LOC) in the form of self-licensing. 

It also violates rights by restricting the participation of authorities involved in licensing and impact analysis of the interests they protect, such as public bodies responsible for (i) the protection of indigenous, quilombola, and traditional peoples and communities; (ii) the protection of historical and cultural heritage and public health; (iii) the protection of nature Conservation Units. The General Law reduces democratic participation in the licensing process by establishing a rule that hinders the holding of public hearings. It unduly reduces the socio-environmental responsibility of financial institutions, contradicting the objective and joint nature of civil liability in environmental matters. 

The lawsuit challenges the changes made by the General Law to the Law of the National System of Conservation Units - SNUC (Federal Law 9.985/2000), especially regarding the elimination of the requirement for authorization from the body responsible for the management of the Conservation Unit in the case of environmental licensing of projects that affect the protected area or its buffer zone, and the repeals in the Atlantic Forest Law (Federal Law 11.428/2006). 

The authors argue that an important factor ignored by the General Law in the face of climate change is the inclusion of the climate variable in licensing, with no mention even of the word "climate," which would represent a necessary step forward. It is argued that the lack of explicit mention of the mandatory climate analysis of activities and projects can lead to legal uncertainty and interpretations of the law that prevent the establishment of environmental conditions for mitigation and adaptation to climate change, which can affect the safety of the population and the very structure of the projects. Regarding this aspect, the authors mention the content of Advisory Opinion (OC) 32/2025 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and the Advisory Opinion (OC) of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 2025 on climate, which require protective measures by States to ensure climate protection and a balanced environment. The authors point out that several provisions of the General Law violate CONAMA Resolutions, the National Environmental Policy (Federal Law 6.938/1981), the National Policy on Climate Change (Federal Law 12.187/2009), and Complementary Law 140/2011. Finally, they point to the violation of constitutional provisions and principles: ecologically balanced environment, prevention and precaution, prohibition of socio-environmental regression, polluter-pays principle, user-pays principle, administrative efficiency, participation, intergenerational equity, and absolute priority of the rights of children and adolescents.

Given the scenario described, the petitioners request the suspension of all the challenged provisions of Laws 15.190/2025 and 15.300/2025. As final requests, the petitioners seek a declaration of unconstitutionality of the articles of the laws specified in the initial petition and a determination of the interpretation in accordance with the Constitution of some of the articles of the General Licensing Law, such as articles 14, heading, items I to III, article 28, heading and §§1, 6 and 8; 29, items I to X and article 31, heading and sole paragraph, so that the issue of climate is considered.

ADI 7919 (General Law on Environmental Licensing and Law on Special Environmental Licensing)

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Any compulsory, unrequited payment to the government levied on corporations or individuals. This can be for environmental reasons, such as introducing a Carbon tax to set a price that emitters must pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.

Actions or measures to adapt terrestrial systems to climate change.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

A drought is an extended period of unusually dry weather marked by a significant and sustained lack of precipitation, falling below a specific threshold over a large area for more than a month

Financial actors and resources that are primarily directed towards climate change mitigation, adaptation and compensation.

Activities involving the catching, processing, and selling of fish for food, recreation, and industry.

This sector provides medical services, manufactures medical equipment, and develops pharmaceuticals to maintain and improve health.

Activities of businesses and institutions that provide financial services and products to individuals and organisations.

Actions to adapt human health, healthcare systems and well-being to climate change.

Air pollution involves harmful contaminants in the air, affecting both indoor and outdoor environments. It can lead to health issues like respiratory diseases and heart problems, and climate impacts such as global warming. Pollutants can damage plants, trees, habitats, and water bodies like rivers and lakes.

Activities that provide lodging, food, and entertainment services to guests, including hotels, restaurants, and resorts.

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

Actions and measures to adapt and increase resilience of societies and the economy to climate change.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Activities that relate to the production of goods and services from forests.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

A financial institution that manages a country's currency and can promote climate-related initiatives through green monetary policy and other means.

This sector involves managing waste treatment, sanitation, pollution control and environmental cleanup.

People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

Action or measure that increases resilience of societal, cultural and natural heritage to climate change impacts.

Electrical energy generated from mechanical devices driven by flowing fresh water.

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector involves the distribution, treatment, and conservation of water resources.

Climate change impacts our society by disrupting the natural, economic and social systems we depend on. Physical hazards and underlying vulnerabilities can lead to increased resource competition for food and water, which can heighten the risk of conflict.

Dedicated pool of financial resources for climate-related projects.

People whose health, both mental and physical, makes them more vulnerable to the effects of climate change

woman and genders outside of the gender binary

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Using laws and the legal system more broadly to protect vulnerable entities

Activities involving the management, development, and sale of property assets.

The activities of industries that transforms raw materials into finished goods through industrial processes.

The activities of industries involved in the production, distribution, and sale of energy, including electricity, gas, and renewables.

This sector creates and distributes information and entertainment through television, radio, print, and digital platforms.

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

Any substance with chemical properties that can cause physical harm to people or damage the environment, including ammonia, carbon monoxide, phosphine, chlorine, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, pesticides, dioxins, microplastics, benzene, asbestos, aflatoxins, fluoride, methanol, and toxins from marine sources.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

Activities that involve the cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for food, fibre, and other products essential for human life and industry.

Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock formed from carbonised plant matter, rich in carbon and hydrocarbons, and occurring in several main types including hard coal and brown coal.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Social protection systems consist of policies that help people manage social risks in order to prevent poverty and maintain decent incomes and living standards

A company that is owned wholly or partially by the state, typically operating in key sectors.

A loan is a policy instrument where funds are provided to a borrower with the expectation of repaying the principal plus interest.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

This sector involves activities that impart knowledge and skills to individuals, including formal schooling, vocational training and educational support.

Social inclusion is the process of improving the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society—improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

The processes through which enterprises can identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their actual and potential adverse impacts. Due diligence is the idea that reasonable precautions should be taken to avoid causing harm to people, the environment, or society. It also involves identifying and mitigating risks before they occur.

Geohazards are adverse geological phenomenon's that are capable of causing widespread damage or loss to property, life and the environment, such as earthquakes, volcano eruptions and tsunamis. Climate change can increase the frequency and severity of some geohazards, such as landslides, and soil erosion.

In December, 2025, the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) and the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), accompanied by several expert entities, filed a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) with a request for a precautionary measure proposed with the objective of questioning the constitutionality of provisions of the new General Law on Environmental Licensing (Law 15,190/2025) and the law that provides for Special Environmental Licensing - LAE (Law 15,300/2025). The authors allege that Law 15,190/2025 weakens the legal system, affronting the normative environmental protection, achieved even through jurisprudence in the Supreme Federal Court, and brings about a panorama of environmental regression in a period marked by climate change. The content of the challenged norms deepens existing deficiencies in the licensing process, generating instability in the commitments assumed by the country in the socio-environmental and climate agendas. It is argued that some of the weakening objectives of the new laws are: (i) the control and oversight of activities that degrade the environment and climate; (ii) the exercise of the institutional powers of the National Environmental System (Sisnama) and public bodies that participate in environmental licensing in the protection of socio-environmental rights; (iii) the commitments made by the country in the socio-environmental and climate agendas; (iv) good business and financial practices; and (v) provisions related to the federal pact. The authors highlight several unconstitutional aspects present in the regulations. It is pointed out that the General Law promotes excessive delegation to states and municipalities through normative fragmentation and omission in terms of general rules. It is argued that the General Law establishes, in several points, open and excessive delegation for licensing to states, municipalities, and the Federal District, and does not mention CONAMA, which goes against the legal system of powers to legislate and to license. The General Law exempts potentially polluting or degrading activities and projects from environmental licensing, such as road paving, maintenance dredging, and agricultural activities. It also weakens the requirement for the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) for these activities, preventing federative entities from issuing regulations and rendering the principles of prevention, precaution, and the polluter-pays principle ineffective. This hinders environmental control, especially of agricultural activities, which are responsible for 28% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is argued that the General Law establishes too many hypotheses for granting the License by Adhesion and Commitment (LAC), with provisions applicable to subnational entities, including projects with medium polluting potential and the possibility of its use for corrective operating licenses. This establishes a self-licensing procedure without adequate environmental safety and control. The use of the LAC implies limitations on environmental conditions and a lack of assessment of the synergistic and cumulative effects of the projects. It is argued that the General Law improperly waives the requirement for certificates and permits such as the certificate of use and occupation of urban land, which deepens the risks to vulnerable areas under urban territorial planning, such as favelas, hillsides, and riverbanks, which may be affected by projects licensed without municipal approval, causing territorial conflicts, expulsion of communities, devaluation of properties, and favoring urban land grabbing, generating risks to public health and the environment and institutionalizing environmental racism. It is argued that the establishment of the Special Environmental License (LAE), which combines three phases of licensing into one for "strategic projects," constitutes a material unconstitutionality. Regarding energy projects, the General Law excessively simplifies the parameters for licensing and establishing conditions, which encourages environmentally and climatically critical practices, such as the opening of new frontiers for oil exploration and the deforestation of the Legal Amazon, preventing the country from meeting its targets under the Paris Agreement. It is argued that the General Law facilitates the regularization of irregularly installed enterprises through a Corrective Operating License (LOC) in the form of self-licensing. It also violates rights by restricting the participation of authorities involved in licensing and impact analysis of the interests they protect, such as public bodies responsible for (i) the protection of indigenous, quilombola, and traditional peoples and communities; (ii) the protection of historical and cultural heritage and public health; (iii) the protection of nature Conservation Units. The General Law reduces democratic participation in the licensing process by establishing a rule that hinders the holding of public hearings. It unduly reduces the socio-environmental responsibility of financial institutions, contradicting the objective and joint nature of civil liability in environmental matters. The lawsuit challenges the changes made by the General Law to the Law of the National System of Conservation Units - SNUC (Federal Law 9,985/2000), especially regarding the elimination of the requirement for authorization from the body responsible for the management of the Conservation Unit in the case of environmental licensing of projects that affect the protected area or its buffer zone, and the repeals in the Atlantic Forest Law (Federal Law 11,428/2006). The authors argue that an important factor ignored by the General Law in the face of climate change is the inclusion of the climate variable in licensing, with no mention even of the word "climate," which would represent a necessary step forward. It is argued that the lack of explicit mention of the mandatory climate analysis of activities and projects can lead to legal uncertainty and interpretations of the law that prevent the establishment of environmental conditions for mitigation and adaptation to climate change, which can affect the safety of the population and the very structure of the projects. Regarding this aspect, the authors mention the content of Advisory Opinion (OC) 32/2025 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and the Advisory Opinion (OC) of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 2025 on climate, which require protective measures by States to ensure climate protection and a balanced environment. The authors point out that several provisions of the General Law violate CONAMA Resolutions, the National Environmental Policy (Federal Law 6,938/1981), the National Policy on Climate Change (Federal Law 12,187/2009), and Complementary Law 140/2011. Finally, they point to the violation of constitutional provisions and principles: ecologically balanced environment, prevention and precaution, prohibition of socio-environmental regression, polluter-pays principle, user-pays principle, administrative efficiency, participation, intergenerational equity, and absolute priority of the rights of children and adolescents. Given the scenario described, we request the suspension of all the challenged provisions of Laws 15,190/2025 and 15,300/2025. As final requests, we request a declaration of unconstitutionality of the articles of the laws specified in the initial petition and a determination of the interpretation in accordance with the Constitution of some of the articles of the General Licensing Law, such as articles 14, heading, items I to III, article 28, heading and §§1, 6 and 8; 29, items I to X and article 31, heading and sole paragraph, so that the issue of climate is considered.

ADI 7919 (General Law on Environmental Licensing and Law on Special Environmental Licensing) - petition

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance