The Emptying of the Right to an Ecologically Balanced Environment: An Analysis of the Reformulation of Environmental Licensing in the State of Minas Gerais

Abstract

The article analyzes how the constitutional guarantee of an ecologically balanced environment has been weakened in the Brazilian environmental agenda, often being seen as an obstacle to economic growth or disregarded in discourses that deny issues such as wildfires, deforestation, and climate change. Focusing on the reform of environmental licensing in the state of Minas Gerais, the study uses the analytical categories of Environmental Licensing, Environmental Policy, and the Right to the Environment to discuss how regulatory changes have relaxed infra-constitutional legislation, weakening environmental protection and the instruments of environmental oversight in Brazil. Given this context, the general objective is to analyze the implications of the environmental licensing reform in Minas Gerais, identifying potential weakening of the right to an ecologically balanced environment and its effects on environmental protection and socioeconomic interests. The study questions which legal and political elements highlight the erosion of the constitutional right to an ecologically balanced environment, associated with the restructuring of the environmental licensing system in the state of Minas Gerais. The research explores the weakening of the right to a balanced environment in Minas Gerais (2016–2023) through a literature review and documentary analysis of legislation, using a qualitative approach and inferential method to highlight the legal gaps and empirical implications of these norms.