2020-01-30

IBAMA opens public consultation on Terms of Reference for offshore wind energy environmental permits

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IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) opened a public consultation, which runs until April 3rd, 2020, with the objective of receiving contributions for the publication of a Terms of Reference (ToR) to guide the preparation of Environmental Impact Studies of Maritime Wind Farms (MWFs), more commonly known as Offshore Wind Farms.

The consultation is an offshoot of the project titled "Environmental Impact Assessment of Offshore Wind Farms", supported by the EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues in partnership with the Directorate-General for Energy.

When applying for a Federal Environmental Permit, ToRs are issued by IBAMA to guide entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in relation to the preparation of environmental studies that will be assessed throughout the permission of granting licenses. In turn, the public consultation is being carried out to provide transparency and encourage social participation in this phase of improvements to the environmental permit granting process of Offshore Wind Farms.

The draft of ToR was prepared based on the following references: i) Experience of the IBAMA technical team in the environmental permissions for granting licenses of Onshore Wind Farms and Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration projects; ii) Discussions held in July 2019 at the International Workshop on Environmental Impact Assessments of Offshore Wind Farms, promoted by IBAMA and the Sector Dialogues; iii) Mapping of environmental decision models applied in Europe for offshore wind projects; and v) Scientific literature on Environmental Impact Assessments of Offshore Wind Farms.

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