March 29, 2022

The Brazilian Supreme Court’s green agenda

topic:	Climate action
located:	Brazil
editor:	Ellen Nemitz

The Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso, who was once detained for his criticism of the military dictatorship of 1964-1985, is now an outspoken critic of Jair Bolsonaro's policies. On 9 March, he convened other artists and the public for the campaign Act for the Earth (#AtoPelaTerra). The artistic demonstration gathered a crowd in front of the National Congress in Brasilia to protest against a set of bills with the potential to (further) harm the environment. Three weeks later, the Supreme Court scheduled a review of seven actions to bar the systematic dismantling of environmental policies and guarantee greater protection for the natural world.

The initiative dubbed the "Green Agenda" - in opposition to the "Destruction Package" - has been celebrated by NGOs, like Greenpeace. "The initiative is important and deserves to be closely monitored by all of us because it is the first time that the court has scheduled so many processes on the environmental agenda in a single session," said the organisation. The specialised newsroom ClimaInfo highlighted that this is an historic initiative and a response not only to the artists who took part in the ‘Act for the Earth’ protests, but also to the entire society concerned with the dismantling of environmental policies. 

Jair Bolsonaro, who won the elections in 2018 and has been in office since January 2019, is responsible for subverting environmental protection acts and openly defends a weaker protection of forests and indigenous territories in the name of a supposed economic development. His last attempt to convince the population of his plans was driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, claiming that the dependence of fertilisers could be reduced by mining in indigenous land; this necessity has been denied by specialists, who advocated for a decreased dependence on chemical fertilisers.

For more than three years now, Bolsonaro has tailored the country for the agribusiness and mining industry, helping to ruin Brazil's international credibility regarding the climate and the environment. Most of his actions violate the Constitution, which provides that the State should “protect the environment and combat pollution in any of its forms” and promote “adequate use of available natural resources and preservation of the environment.”

The Green Agenda will review seven topics, all on the same day. Briefly, they claim for the resumption of an adequate plan for the prevention and control of deforestation in the Amazon - alleging that the government has not fulfilled its obligations in this regard -, contest the way the fiscalisation of environmental crimes has been carried out, question a ruling to control air quality without establishing a deadline for the changes and contest the provisional measure that grants automatic environmental licences for some companies. 

Greenpeace highlights that the Supreme Court is doing more than just judging unconstitutional acts: it is listening to the chants of a society saying enough "in the face of the escalation of deforestation and crimes in the Amazon.” They hope, they say, that this is just the "beginning of the necessary reaction to put an end to the environmental destruction in the country.” So do we.

Photo by Mandy Choi

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