The climate tragedy that has ravaged Rio Grande do Sul since May has a dramatic chapter: the restructuring of Salgado Filho Airport. Privatised in 2017, the airport was granted to the German company Fraport until 2042. Due to intense rains, the runway and airport building were completely flooded, causing infrastructure damages. With no expected return to operation*, a blame game has ensued between the company and the state over the responsibility for the repairs.
Fraport is well-known to the people of Rio Grande do Sul due to violations against the community of Vila Nazaré in the northern area of Porto Alegre. This community was located near the airport, where families had lived for decades, when the runway extension and drainage system installation works led to aggressive actions by the company against the community. After a third-party company was hired to remove the families in a process marked by violence and arbitrariness, the 2,000 families were relocated to peripheral housing complexes and are still waiting for adequate infrastructure, safety conditions, and public services for housing.
A new chapter of Fraport’s violations has emerged with the floods that left the runway, the building, as well as much of the capital of Rio Grande do Sul underwater. Since the rains ceased, the company has tried to distance itself from responsibility for the airport’s reconstruction, claiming that the work should be the state’s responsibility since they manage a concession and are not the owner. Later, the German company representatives claimed that such statement was unfortunate on the part of the Brazilian administration and that they were open to dialogue.
The federal government is now conducting negotiations with Fraport for the reopening of the airport. The National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) is analysing the costs presented by Fraport for restructuring, as well as the company’s request for contractual revision, based on the argument of an extraordinary event. Curiously, the same company, which promotes its sustainable efforts and commitment to offsetting aviation fuel emissions through forest preservation and emission reduction credits (REDD), did not hesitate to drain the runway at its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, during a 2023 flood. What’s different? Is the German concession legislation more stringent with multinational companies? Why does the same company act so differently in similar cases in different countries?
Other allegations against the company involve the flood protection system. State Representative Matheus Gomes reported to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office that Fraport had reduced the necessary investments for the airport’s drainage system works. According to the representative, the company did not follow the project guidelines given by the responsible municipal department, the DEP (Department of Storm Sewers), which was dissolved in 2017. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the case.
Salgado Filho Airport is the ninth largest in the country, responsible for a significant passenger flow, which the operations relocated to the airbase in Canoas since May cannot accommodate. This case constitutes a violation of the rights of the people of Rio Grande do Sul and people’s freedom of movement, as their mobility is not ensured due to a contractual impasse. It also made it difficult to quickly receive donations and solidarity through air in that state in the most critical moment of the floods. It is evident that the provision of public services by companies is solely focused on profit.
This case is also a paradigm of the reproduction of environmental injustices and the false solutions of capital in the face of climate emergency. The concession, granted shortly after the coup against President Dilma Rousseff by then-president Michel Temer, is part of a process of deepening neoliberalism in the country. The increasing takeover of public spaces and services by multinational companies highlights the clash between the rights of people versus the rights of companies, where multinationals always come out on top, enjoying impunity in matters of human rights and environmental crimes or omissions. This is yet another case that underscores the urgency of a Binding Treaty on multinational companies and human rights. Nationally, it highlights the need for the bill PL 572/2022, a national framework for holding accountable the companies that violate rights, evade their historical responsibility regarding climate change, whether in mitigation actions, adaptation, or response to the increasingly intense and frequent climate-related losses and damages. Restoring democracy, public services and management, and regulating multinational companies are part of the necessary systemic change to achieve climate justice in an already changed climate.
* After the publication of this article, it was announced that the airport should resume operations in October
Article originally published in Portuguese in the newspaper Brasil de Fato on https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2024/08/12/reconstrucao-no-rio-grande-do-sul-manobras-da-fraport-resultam-na-continuidade-de-violacoes-dos-direitos-humano
