The National Government has just issued the Decree 2041 of 2014 by means of which the Decree 2820 of 2010 on environmental licensing was amended

The Decree 2041 of 2014 is issued in response to the mandate of CONPES 3762 of 2013, a public policy document in which the National Government was instructed to optimize the environmental licensing system in Colombia.

The Decree 2041 of 2014 aims at strengthening the environmental licensing procedure by implementing orality tools throughout the analysis of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the setting of visits to the project area by the Environmental Authority during the study phase of EIA, and the need to comply with certain quality criteria on the EIA submitted by the petitioner of the environmental license. Likewise, the Decree limits the opportunities for the Environmental Authority to request additional information from the petitioner of the environmental license to a one-time opportunity. 

On the other hand, the Decree aims to bring up-to-date the legislation related to environmental licensing in order to harmonize its provisions with rules and regulations recently enacted in respect to infrastructure and renewable energy, at the time that it makes certain precisions on the exigency of the environmental license for the execution of works and activities considered as of high environmental impact. 

A more detailed analysis of Decree 2041 of 2014 will be distributed over the next few days.