Federal Law No. 14.850/2024 has been published, establishing the National Air Quality Policy
The National Air Quality Policy seeks to establish general rules for controlling and monitoring air quality, providing guidelines applicable to individuals and companies responsible for emitting atmospheric pollutants, managing air quality and/or controlling atmospheric pollution.
Federal Law No. 14,850/2024 established concepts for “air quality standard”, “maximum emission limit” and “air quality monitoring”, in order to allow to set national air quality parameters.
These parameters will still be established by the National Environmental Council (“CONAMA”) and should be part of the National Air Quality Control Program (“PRONAR”).
The setting of maximum limits for the emission of atmospheric pollutants must take into account the quality and viability of available practices and technologies, the environmental impact resulting from the maintenance or replacement of equipment, and the information provided by manufacturers of air pollution control equipment, with penalties and sanctions being applied in the event of non-compliance with the provisions of the Law.
In addition, Federal Law No. 14,850/2024 stipulates that a regulation will establish an inventory of atmospheric emissions, i.e. the set of information on atmospheric emissions generated by sources or a group of sources located in a specific geographical area, over a defined period of time.
In this sense, the new law also provided for the creation of the Air Quality Index (“IQAr”), an indicator that seeks to relate the impact of concentrations of pollutants in the air on health and should be informed to the population, integrating the National Air Quality Management System (“MonitoAr”), also recently created by the new law.
The National Air Quality Policy will still need to be regulated, especially with regard to emission limits and sanctions for non-compliance, which could lead to undertakings adapting to the parameters to be set.
