Over two days of programming, the event discussed permitting, solid waste management, climate change, and mining.
Belo Horizonte hosted the first Meeting of the Association of Municipalities and Environment - Minas Gerais section (Anamma/MG). Over the course of two days, on Monday (October 16th) and Tuesday (October 17th), approximately 300 people from across the state participated in roundtable discussions, panel debates, and institutional presentations aimed at discussing the main trends in environmental public management promoted by states, municipalities, and the Union. The event, held at the Administrative City, was supported by the Government of Minas Gerais, through Secretariat of State for Environment and Sustainable Development (Semad).
On Tuesday morning, the "Perspectives on Environmental Permitting" panel was presented, moderated by the Environmental Advisor of the Association of Municipalities of Minas Gerais (AMM), Licínio Xavier. The event aimed to discuss the challenges of municipalizing permitting for municipalities that take on the responsibility of environmentally regularizing ventures within their territorial limits.
The panel featured the participation of the Superintendent of Support for Environmental Regulation at Semad, Fernando Baliani, who presented the actions of Minas Gerais' environmental department regarding the Normative Deliberation (DN) of the State Council of Environmental Policy (Copam) 213/2017. The regulation establishes the rules for municipal permitting in Minas Gerais.
"Municipal permitting prioritizes the venture under analysis at the local level. This is because, when a venture is licensed at the state level, it joins a queue of many other processes. In the municipality, it is treated as a priority by the technical team of the city hall, ensuring that operations begin within legal deadlines, thereby resulting in economic development and job creation," highlighted the superintendent.
Solid waste management
Following this, the "Solid Waste" panel addressed the best methods and possibilities for providing services related to Urban Solid Waste (USW) management in Brazilian municipalities. "The panel allowed for articulation and information exchange between state and municipalities regarding the provision and management of urban solid waste services, as well as the exchange of experiences among strategic actors such as consortia, municipalities, and civil society on the vision of best practices related to environmentally sustainable waste disposal," said the Superintendent of Sanitation at Semad, Klenner Lopes.
Climate change
In the afternoon, the Chief of Staff of the State Environmental Foundation (Feam), Renata Araújo, participated in a roundtable discussion on "Biodiversity and Climate Change." The discussion was moderated by the President of Anamma-MG, Gabriel Coutinho, and featured the participation of the Secretary of Environment of Belo Horizonte, José Reis de Nogueira Barros, and the Biodiversity Projects Manager of the engineering company Masterplan, Fernando Matias.
Renata presented the monitoring conducted by Feam through the creation of the Minas Gerais Climate Vulnerability Index, which presents the degree of susceptibility to adverse climate effects, as well as sensitivity, exposure, and adaptation capacity of the regions of Minas Gerais.
Another important approach was the Government of Minas' adherence to the "Race to Zero" program and the adoption of priority goals and strategies within the Climate Action Plan of the State of Minas Gerais. The Government of Minas is working on developing scenarios to achieve zero emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) by 2050, with the adoption of an intermediate goal of reducing these emissions by 2030.
These measures align with sectors such as transportation, waste, agriculture, energy, industry, among others. "We need to assess which sectors have more opportunities for decarbonization. Not only reducing emissions but also adopting more measures for capturing greenhouse gases. We will need this integration with municipalities to achieve goals focused on these scenarios," evaluates Renata.
"Municipalities are the ones who feel the consequences of climate change firsthand. There is nothing better than knowing the situation and acting locally," said the President of Anamma-MG, Gabriel Coutinho.
Mining and municipalities
The President of Feam, Renato Brandão, was one of the guests for the discussion round on "Mining and Municipalities." "According to Complementary Law 140, supervision is shared among the entities, so having municipalities monitor and report to the state the difficulties and impacts is very important for good management. Regardless of whether permitting is state-level, we've come to address aspects that municipalities can work on so that we can interact and build a more suitable environment for the population and the reality of each one," pointed out Renato.
According to him, the debate is also essential for thinking about the issue of sustainability and the reconversion of the municipality's economy following the completion of the mining process. The mediation was conducted by lawyer Germano Vieira, with the participation of the environmental consultant of the Association of Mining Municipalities of Minas Gerais (Amig), Thiago Metzker, the Secretary of Planning of Itabirito, Débora Aguiar, and the CEO of the company Katalizar, Marcos Albuquerque.
Anamma
The National Association of Municipalities and Environment (Anamma) is a non-profit civil entity, without partisan ties, representing municipal power in the environmental area, with the aim of strengthening Municipal Environmental Systems for the implementation of environmental policies that preserve natural resources and improve the quality of life of citizens.
Founded in 1988 in Curitiba (PR), Anamma has developed actions aimed at municipal strengthening, occupying a prominent place, with various representations in the National Environment Council (Conama).
Source: Agência Minas
