Brazil enters 2026 poised to carry out a historic and highly controversial rollback of its environmental-permitting system. The country’s powerful agribusiness lobby successfully pressed Brazil’s right-wing Congress in July to approve legislation requiring the about-face, openly acknowledging the goal was to gut the environmental-licensing system. Green advocates, scientists and politicians from the center and left of the political spectrum have condemned Congress for passing the measure, dubbed by some as “the devastation bill.” But center-left President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has come in for criticism, too. Lula signed the bill into law in August, reportedly because if he didn’t, the president of the Senate would exercise his power to do so. And signing allowed Lula to issue vetoes—63 in all—registering his opposition to provisions his administration deemed particularly harmful. (See "Lula struggles... [Log in to read more]