Highlights Of KLA’s Environmental Law Team And Perspectives For 2026 – Environmental Law

This report synthesizes the main legal highlights of 2025 in the
fields of environment and sustainability and outlines perspectives
for 2026. The topic is broader in scope and will remain on the
radar through other developments throughout the year; this report
records cross-cutting facts and agendas with impacts across
different sectors, both nationally and internationally.

COP30: Among the main outcomes of COP30, held
in November 2025 in Belém (Pará), were the Global
Stocktake Decision, which reinforced the implementation of the
Paris Agreement, support for NDCs and national adaptation plans;
progress toward a climate finance program to triple resources for
the most vulnerable countries; and the commitment of the Brazilian
presidency to present “roadmaps” to curb deforestation
and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

General Environmental Licensing Law: Law No.
15,190/2025 (LGLA) was enacted on August 8, 2025, with presidential
vetoes later overturned by Congress, and Law No. 15,300/2025
instituted the Special Environmental License (LAE) on December 22,
2025. Public debate focused on expanding the simplified licensing
regime (LAC) to medium-scale activities/pollution potential, on
exemptions from prior assessment, and on the accelerated procedure
of the LAE for “strategic projects,” a framework that led
to judicial challenges and the suspension of the effects of the
LGLA by the Supreme Federal Court (STF).

Climate Plan and implementation: On December
15, 2025, Brazil’s Interministerial Committee on Climate Change
approved the Climate Plan, validating the National Mitigation
Strategy (ENM), the National Adaptation Strategy (ENA), and
sectoral plans through 2035, and forwarding the National Adaptation
Plan to the UNFCCC. The act guides the implementation of the NDC (a
59%–67% reduction in net emissions by 2035) and structures
targets across eight mitigation sectors and sixteen adaptation
agendas.

Brazilian Sustainable Taxonomy (TSB): Decree
No. 12,705/2025 established the TSB as an instrument of the
Ecological Transformation Plan, defining principles (science-based
approach, just transition, interoperability), governance by the
CITSB, sectoral handbooks, and an MRV system (Monitoring, Reporting
and Verification). Its guiding nature extends to public policies
and private economic decisions.

Adaptation and resilience: infrastructure and
health: The New PAC Selections, the federal
government’s Growth Acceleration Program, allocated BRL 11.7
billion to urban drainage and slope-stabilization works in 235
municipalities (announcement on September 18, 2025), signaling
climate-proofing in projects financed with federal resources. In
the health sector, on December 5, 2025, the Ministry of Health
launched the National Guide for Resilient Health Facilities,
incorporated into the Health PAC, with standards for water and
energy autonomy and reinforced structures to operate under extreme
events, aligned with AdaptaSUS (MoH).

Case law: climate due diligence and imprescriptible
liabilities: On August 22, 2025, the 9th Federal Court of
Porto Alegre (Public Civil Action No. 5050920-75.2023.4.04.7100)
suspended the licenses of the Candiota III Thermal Power Plant and
the Candiota Mine, characterizing the case as structural climate
litigation and ordering climate-related conditions and a transition
plan with deadlines and daily fines (TRF4/JFRS). At the STF, Theme
1,194, with the decision published on April 8, 2025, established
the imprescriptibility of enforcement claims for environmental
damage remediation, including when converted into monetary damages,
with general repercussion (STF – Theme 1,194; ARE 1,352,872).
Also at the STF, the Court set aside the temporal framework of Law
No. 14,701/2023, reaffirming the unconstitutionality of the
criterion and establishing guidelines for the demarcation of
Indigenous lands.

IFRS/ISSB reporting becomes the information
core: The Brazilian Securities Commission (CVM) recognized
IFRS S1/S2 standards and structured their adoption in Brazil
through CVM Resolution No. 193/2023 (consolidated text), with
adjustments introduced by CVM Resolution No. 227/2025 to enable
voluntary adoption in 2025. Mandatory application applies to fiscal
years beginning on January 1, 2026. CBPS 01 and 02 mirror the
general sustainability requirements and climate disclosures to be
integrated into financial statements, including governance, GHG
metrics, targets, and scenarios, subject to assurance and double
materiality.

Financial system: climate risk and prudence:
The Central Bank maintained the GRSAC Report (Report on Social,
Environmental and Climate Risks and Opportunities) and launched
Public Consultation No. 127/2025 (November 4, 2025) to include
quantitative requirements aligned with BCBS Pillar 3 and the ISSB,
with a timeline providing for initial disclosures from 2028 for
larger institutions (reference date 2027). The stated objective is
to reduce asymmetries and standardize transparency, impacting
credit documentation and pricing.

International climate finance: At COP30
(Belém), the Board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and
Damage (FRLD) advanced the 2025–2026 start-up modalities and
an initial call for proposals, with an envelope of USD 250 million
and expectations of approvals beginning in 2026, according to
official documents and pending decisions.

EUDR postponed and simplified, without relaxing its
core: On December 23, 2025, the EU published Regulation
(EU) 2025/2650, postponing the application of the EUDR to December
30, 2026 (medium and large companies) and June 30, 2027 (micro and
small companies), and concentrating due diligence on the first
operator (“first placing on the market”). Printed
products were excluded, and a review and simplification by April
30, 2026 was
предусмотрed,
while preserving geolocation and legal compliance requirements in
the country of production.

Legal perspectives for 2026, nationally and
internationally

• Implementation of the Climate Plan through secondary regulation
  is expected to affect licensing, public procurement, and financing
  criteria;




• Consolidation of IFRS/ISSB reporting will require integrated
  data governance, materiality assessment, and assurance within
  financial statements;




• The financial system is likely to incorporate environmental
  reports, with quantitative climate-risk disclosures and contractual
  effects on provisions and insurance;




• With respect to the EUDR, export chains to the EU will require
  geolocated traceability and contractual allocation of
  responsibilities, mindful of the 2026/2027 timeline and the April
  30, 2026 review;




• Pending judgments on actions challenging the LGLA, regulatory
  prudence is expected: robust mapping of conditions and studies,
  analysis of competences under Complementary Law No. 140/2011
  (referenced in the LGLA itself), and contractual adjustments
  (procurement, EPC, financing) with triggers for rescheduling,
  provisions, and termination clauses in the event of changes in case
  law;




• Following approval of the Brazilian Emissions Trading System
  (SBCE) in 2024, 2025 and 2026 mark Phase I of the regulation of Law
  No. 15,042/2024. Accordingly, advances are expected this year in
  the rules for trading carbon credits in the regulated market, given
  the challenge of structuring a robust domestic system with clear
  rules, reliable methodologies, and environmental
  integrity—key to stimulating investment, strengthening the
  market, and contributing to sustainable development in Brazil;




• Despite the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris
  Agreement and its absence from COP30, with expected impacts on the
  global climate agenda, negotiations continue and COP31 will be held
  in Turkey, with Australia presiding over the negotiations. The
  presentation of the “roadmaps” announced in Belém
  is expected, aimed at a just transition away from fossil fuels and
  reversing deforestation, as well as monitoring the targets set at
  COP30;




• Although oil and natural gas continue to show significant
  demand globally, renewable energy sources maintain a more dynamic
  growth pace. In 2025, these sources surpassed fossil fuels in the
  global energy mix, according to a report by the Ember think tank,
  marking an important milestone in the advancement of the energy
  transition heading into 2026.

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