A Political Agenda in Conflict with Environmental Protection: A Critical Policy Essay from Brazil

Current Brazilian policies on environmental protection have become a worldwide concern since President Bolsonaro’s election in 2018. Not only have his speeches been aggressive and critical of environmental protections, but many of his actual decisions have shown a very dangerous negligence of populations and interests affected by environmental harms. As a consequence, different environmental crises have plagued the country without any adequate response by public agencies or emergency plans to diminished harms. This essay uses a regulatory approach to demonstrate how the recent large withdrawal of environmental protection instruments in Brazil have supported a harmful and unlawful political agenda. First, we reconstruct the historical narrative of Brazilian environmental policy between the years 2018 and 2021, demonstrating through journalistic reports and social organizations’ alerts, how the speeches, actions and omissions of the Brazilian government may have contributed to the present environmental situation. Using an environmental justice perspective, we demonstrate a lack of legitimate influence on political decisions related to environmental protection. Subsequently, we discuss the existing legal instruments to respond to the political abuses in the Brazilian legal system, in order to demonstrate their insufficiency to deal with this scenario. Finally, we evaluate international criminal law as a possible answer to the ongoing environmental abuses in Brazil.