The concept of the “deadly sins” applied to public management reflects how the pursuit of short-term economic or fiscal profitability degrades natural and social heritage. When governments prioritize revenue collection or attracting private investment over sustainability, they engage in conduct punishable before the administrative courts (Council of State) and the ordinary/criminal courts (Supreme Court of Justice).
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1. Extractive Greed
Unrestricted granting of environmental licenses and mining and energy concessions in fragile ecosystems (high-altitude moorlands, wetlands, the Amazon) to inflate royalties and GDP figures, disregarding the precautionary and environmental prevention principles.
2. Urban and Real Estate Arrogance
Extraction of forest reserves, unchecked urban sprawl, and densification along waterways driven by property tax collection and capital gains, ignoring territorial planning around water resources.
3. Development Envy or Myopia
Sacrificing ecological restoration or circular economy projects to subsidize or finance high-carbon-footprint megaprojects, driven solely by macroeconomic indicators of immediate returns.
4. Agribusiness's Greed for Foreign Exchange
Promotion of deforestation and large-scale, extensive monoculture through tax incentives, displacing biodiversity and eroding soils to secure foreign exchange from commodity exports.
5. Socio-environmental Anger and Impunity
Deliberate concealment or dismissal of the negative environmental impacts and liabilities generated by state infrastructure projects, depriving local and ethnic communities of prior consultation and access to justice.
6. Lax Control and Oversight
Systematic defunding and weakening of state environmental authorities to expedite project approval processes, reducing monitoring of polluting discharges and emissions.
7. Lust for Power through Fossil Infrastructure
Perpetuation of dependence on fossil fuels through exploitative, long-term state contracts that compromise the energy transition, leaving the financial and climate burden on future generations. 8. Media Vanity (Government Greenwashing)
Use of public resources in advertising campaigns that sell an image of sustainability ("carbon neutral"), while the official budget allocates larger sums to activities with high environmental impact.
9. Water Greed and Basin Concessions
De facto privatization or abusive concession of water sources to high-consumption industries to maximize business activity, violating the fundamental right to water of local populations.
10. Deception in the Calculation of Environmental Liabilities
Deliberate omission of remediation costs, environmental closure, and loss of ecosystem services in public accounting, to present projects as supposedly "profitable" when they are financially unprofitable in the long term. Judicialization Mechanisms
Judicial Body | Type of Liability | Legal Remedies
Council of State: Administrative and Contentious: Annulment of administrative acts (licenses, decrees), direct compensation for damages caused by the State, and lawsuits in Popular or Class Actions to protect collective rights to a healthy environment. • Popular Action (Law 472/98)
• Action for Substantive Nullity
• Direct Compensation for Environmental Liabilities
Supreme Court of Criminal and Final Jurisdiction: Trial of high-ranking officials and those with constitutional immunity for crimes against natural resources and the environment (e.g., malfeasance, ecocide, deforestation, damage to natural resources). • Environmental Crimes (Law 2111/21)
• Malfeasance by omission/action
• Protection of biocultural rights
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