By unifying the Secretariats for Infrastructure and Environment and Logistics and Transport, the management of Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) intends to accelerate the environmental licensing process in the state of São Paulo for infrastructure works, especially for highways, side roads and railway lines.
Specialists in the environmental area, however, are concerned about the merger and fear that the environmental agenda will remain in the background in the new government.
In the Tucan administrations, Cetesb (Environmental Company of the State of São Paulo), linked to the Infrastructure and Environment portfolio, was responsible for licensing the works. The company’s technicians, after analyzing the environmental viability of the proposals, decided whether or not to approve the project.
This process, in the evaluation of Tarcísio’s team, tends to be slow thanks to the stages carried out by Cetesb.
First, the company issues the preliminary license (LP), which defines the requirements and conditions for the next licensing phases. Once these requirements are met, Cetesb then issues the installation license (LI), a document in which it authorizes the start of works.
Finally, with the works completed, Cetesb assesses compliance with all conditions required in the licensing and delivers the operating license (LO).
In accordance with a resolution by Conama (National Council for the Environment), each body may establish the deadlines for analysis of these stages, as long as it does not exceed six months or, if there is a need for a public hearing and presentation of the EIA/Rima (Impact Study Environment and Environmental Impact Report), up to 12 months.
In 2022, Cetesb concentrated 36 requests for preliminary and installation licenses for transport works.
The company’s press office also states that, specifically in relation to works associated with transport, in the period from 2019 to 2022, 90 licenses were issued, 57 of which were road works and 33 railway and metropolitan works.
Among the licensed works are the mountain section of the Tamoios highway, duplication of Raposo Tavares and SP-333, the VLT (light rail vehicle) in Baixada Santista and extensions of the lilac and silver subway lines.
In the race to reach the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, Carioca Tarcísio, Minister of Infrastructure in the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), tried to sell himself as a technical manager and delivery man of works, evoking in his campaign the nickname “Tarcioso do Asphalt”.
The new merger of folders has caused displeasure even internally, in the already merged Secretariat for Infrastructure and Environment, according to Sheet found out. Furthermore, the future secretary Natália Resende Andrade Ávila, who will deal with the state’s environmental area, is unknown among people specialized in the subject.
“Is it over there [Natália] helped me in the structuring of more than a hundred infrastructure auctions”, said Freitas when announcing the name of the new secretary.
Natália is a federal attorney at AGU (Advocacy-General of the Union) and was a legal consultant at the Ministry of Infrastructure — hence her proximity to the elected governor.
In note to SheetTarcísio’s press office said that the “Secretary of the Environment, Infrastructure and Logistics will have as one of its objectives the provision of infrastructure combined with preservation and sustainability, following the example of how it was already worked on in the management of the elected governor at the head of the Ministry of Infrastructure”.
The previous merger of the Environment portfolio in São Paulo took place at the beginning of João Doria’s administration, when there was a merger with the Infrastructure portfolio. At the head of it was Marcos Penido —who became Secretary of State in 2022—, with a history of acting at CDHU (Housing and Urban Development Company).
As it happens now, the first merger was subject to criticism. At the time, Penido stated that the integration of the secretariats could speed up licensing, but that the environmental area would be strengthened.
According to Carlos Bocuhy, president of Proam (Brazilian Institute of Environmental Protection), the environmental area loses strength in Tarcísio’s supersecretary — an opinion shared by several people in the sector heard by the report.
“It is dumping for the environmental area. This will be very expensive for the population of the state of the future”, says Bocuhy. “This super folder demonstrates a huge gap, it has an amateurish character. The issue is being diluted, contrary to the contemporary need.”
The president of Proam classifies the model that the governor-elect intends to implement in São Paulo as “lime dust”.
Malu Ribeiro, director of public policies at Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica, recalls that, since the merger made by Doria, the entity has already pointed to the weakening of the environmental agenda in the state.
“The State Water Resources Council, which operated in the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, which gave an important political weight to this agenda, was transferred to the Infrastructure and Environment Secretariat. This came as a kind of discredit to this agenda”, says Ribeiro . “It did not represent a dismantling, as occurred in the federal government, but it was a loss of status.”
In November, SOS Mata Atlântica published a note in which it states that the state of São Paulo was a pioneer in the creation of an environmental secretariat and that it “needs to re-establish its importance” as a “strategic portfolio”. In Ribeiro’s view, there is a lack of vision from the elected government on the environmental area and on climate risk in the state.
In November, already announced for the position, Natália Resende met Jennifer Morgan, special climate envoy from Germany, during a visit to the capital of São Paulo.
In an interview, Morgan said he heard from the future secretary the willingness to continue partnerships between the state and Germany, in addition to concerns about climate adaptation, the impact of climate change on infrastructure and also questions about transport and air quality.
The transport sector is responsible for the largest share of emissions in São Paulo, the fourth state that emits the most in the country —deforestation and agriculture are the main sources of greenhouse gases in Brazil, taking Pará and Mato Grosso to the top positions in the ranking most recent emissions.
“It’s not his beach [Tarcísio de Freitas]. He came from an anti-environmental government, it’s even natural that he doesn’t have a strategic vision of the theme in the world today. But he needs to dialogue with people from São Paulo, with our universities, with our NGOs”, says the director of SOS Mata Atlântica.
I have worked as a journalist for over 10 years, and my work has been featured on many different news websites. I am also an author, and my work has been published in several books. I specialize in opinion writing, and I often write about current events and controversial topics. I am a very well-rounded writer, and I have a lot of experience in different areas of journalism. I am a very hard worker, and I am always willing to put in the extra effort to get the job done.
