Licenciamento ambiental e sustentabilidade

摘要

Sustainability relies mostly on economic, environmental, and social pillars. However, it is not developed without political actions. Environmental licensing is a continuous process of public and private environmental management, and it is one of the main control instruments of the Brazilian environmental policy. This work analyzed environmental licensing processes as a structural coupling within the social, economic and environmental systems. Despite criticism on control mechanisms used in the past few years, we verified that the Rio de Janeiro State has tried to integrate government environmental policy with private environmental management, and that this integration aims at meeting social and economic demands regarding environmental issues. Broadly speaking, this decision follows the strategies and actions proposed by Agenda 21.