Brazil has published Decree No. 13,095/2026, establishing the first comprehensive federal regulatory framework for carbon capture, transport and geological storage (CCS) activities in the country.

The decree, announced in a client alert by the law firm Mayer Brown, regulates the full CCS value chain — capture at emission sources, movement of CO2 by pipeline or other means, and permanent geological storage in subsurface formations.

Until now, operators pursuing CCS projects in Brazil have worked without a dedicated regulatory regime covering all three stages of the chain. Decree 13,095/2026 closes that gap, giving project developers, investors and regulators a defined legal basis for permitting, operations and long-term liability.

The regulation arrives as interest grows in linking Brazil's industrial emission sources — including ethanol fermentation plants, where capture costs are among the lowest of any sector, and oil and gas operations in the pre-salt — to suitable geological storage sites, both onshore and offshore in sedimentary basins such as Santos and Campos.

The decree governs who may carry out capture, transport and injection activities, the terms under which geological storage sites are evaluated and licensed, and the obligations that follow injection, including monitoring and stewardship of stored CO2 over time.

For companies already evaluating Brazil as a CCS destination, the framework answers the threshold question that has delayed final investment decisions: what the legal regime is, and which authority administers it. Legal advisers, including Mayer Brown, are reviewing the decree's provisions on licensing procedures, ownership of pore space and liability transfer after site closure.

The publication marks Brazil's entry into the group of jurisdictions — alongside the United States, Canada, Norway, Australia and the United Kingdom — that operate dedicated CCS regulatory regimes rather than relying on general environmental and mining law.

What happens next depends on implementation. Watch for the subordinate regulations, agency guidelines and permitting procedures that the decree directs, and for the first storage projects to file under the new framework — the test of whether Decree 13,095/2026 converts Brazil's geological storage potential into bankable operating capacity.