The instrument is pioneering in Brazil and will bring greater speed, transparency, and standardization to processes.
Minas Gerais will be the first state in Brazil to renew environmental licenses based on an environmental performance index, which will bring greater speed, transparency, and standardization to the processes. On Friday (June 23), the Government of Minas Gerais published a decree that provides for the evaluation of environmental performance criteria in the analysis of license renewals, which will be regulated through a joint resolution by the State Secretariat for the Environment (Semad), the Minas Gerais Water Management Institute (Igam) and the State Environmental Foundation (Feam).
With the resolution, the Environmental Performance Index in Permissing (Idal) will be created, aiming to quantify, based on qualitative results, the performance of projects that require the renewal of environmental licenses from Semad. "It is an innovative action by the Government of Minas that will have a positive impact, especially on the proper environmental performance of licensed companies. With Idal, we will show society the benefits of licensing from the perspective of environmental improvements and effective performance of licensed projects," comments Marília Melo, State Secretary for the Environment and Sustainable Development.
According to her, this pioneering instrument contributes to bringing greater legal certainty to the concept of performance, providing a more efficient approach during the analysis of operating license renewals and contributing to the elimination of process backlogs. Currently, 35% of overdue licensing procedures are related to operating license renewals. This percentage corresponds to 140 processes.
Pioneering Initiative
Idal emerged from the master's thesis work of Cláudio Mesquita, an environmental manager at the Central Regional Superintendence of the Environment (Supram). With a focus on optimizing licensing and improving company performance, Cláudio developed the index based on research and scientific approaches. In 2021, he presented the work to Secretary Marília, who then requested the creation of a Working Group to develop the proposal.
"There was no concept of environmental performance that could be demanded from the entrepreneur. With the indicators, the analysis becomes more standardized, which impacts the speed of the processes. Throughout the validity of the license, the entrepreneur can observe the criteria that may impact the renewal of the license for their activity. Thus, they pay more attention to environmental impacts," says Cláudio Mesquita.
According to him, Idal consists of four indicators (conditions, self-monitoring, remediation of non-compliance, and critical event existence) that will indicate whether a company can have its license renewed. For each indicator, there is an evaluation score that, when added up, corresponds to a final number indicating the project's performance in relation to environmental quality. It will be assessed, for example, whether a certain condition was fulfilled and whether it was done within the deadline or not. "As the company's evaluation is carried out, any inadequacies can be identified. In that case, for example, the problem will be shown to the company. The company's response to the problem impacts the final score of Idal," he explains.
SOURCE: Agência Minas
