Brazil's president recently stepped up pressure for a major oil project to be implemented at the mouth of the Amazon River, prompting criticism from environmentalists as the nation is set to host UN climate talks in November.
Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 79, aims to position Brazil as a leading force in the global efforts to combat climate change, but has strongly advocated for oil exploration as crucial for the economic growth of South America's largest economy.
We need oil because it will remain available for a long time," Lula stated on Wednesday, contending that the revenue from oil should be utilized "to finance the energy transition, which is going to be very expensive.
He was speaking while officials at Brazil's environmental protection agency IBAMA, a self-contained public government department, consider granting a state-owned oil company Petrobras a license to explore an offshore region known as the Equatorial Margin.
That maritime region covers an area of approximately 350,000 square kilometers in northern Brazil and is situated about 310 miles from the mouth of the Amazon River.
Petrobras estimates the potential oil reserves in the basin to be approximately 10 billion barrels.
Brazil's proven hydrocarbon reserves reached 15.9 billion barrels in 2023, as reported by the government.
The project has, however, received significant criticism, as fossil fuels such as oil are the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming.
Make war in order to achieve peace.
During the initial two years of Lula's third presidential term, environmentally favourable outcomes were achieved, marked by a significant decrease in deforestation and an alteration of upped targets for cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions.
But experts claim that the impending oil project stains Lula's environmental aspirations, just a few months before the 30th United Nations climate change conference is held for the first time in the Amazon, in the city of Belem.
"One cannot lead in addressing climate modification issues while striving for a rise in fossil fuel production," stated Suely Araujo, representing the Brazilian NGO Climate Observatory.
Araujo, a former IBAMA president, said that the argument that the energy transition can be financed with oil revenues "is equivalent to saying that we want to fight a war in order to achieve peace."
"Opening the Amazon for exploration contradicts the (government's) narrative of preserving the Amazon to mitigate climate change," said Ilan Zugman, Latin America director of the 350.org environmental advocacy group.
Almost half of the energy consumed in Brazil comes from renewable sources, a figure that more than triples the global average, according to official data.
But the country is also Latin America's largest oil producer, and the eighth largest in the world, producing an average of 2.6 million barrels of oil per day in 2019, according to 2020 figures.
Lula pointed out that countries like Guyana and Suriname had already "explored oil very close to our Equatorial Margin."
We need to find a solution that ensures the country, the world, and the people that we won't clear-cut any forests, nothing in the Amazon River, and nothing in the Atlantic Ocean will be harmed,
Toya Manchineri, from the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon, warned that the project also risks affecting Indigenous peoples and could lead to "irreversible environmental harm, enabling the destruction of forests and river pollution."
Tensions within government
Following a licensing rejection by IBAMA for Petrobras to explore the Equatorial Margin in 2023, the oil giant recently submitted a revised plan that remains under assessment.
In October 2024, IBAMA requested additional information from Petrobras regarding how it would manage the aftermath of an oil spill in the ecologically diverse area.
The project is under analysis by our technical team, but Petrobras is scheduled to present a new proposal in December.
The project has created friction within the government as well.
Environment Minister Marina Silva, head of IBAMA, stated Thursday that she did not aim to exert any influence on the agency to approve the project.
Environmental scientist Silva stated that it would be a "technical" decision, not a political one.
Similarly, the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, a steadfast supporter of the project, implored IBAMA to exercise "common sense" and expedite the authorization for exploration.