Brazil fast-tracks oil, highway projects before UN climate talks

Manaus, June 12: Months before hosting the U.N.'s first climate talks held in the Amazon, Brazil is fast-tracking a series of controversial decisions that undercut President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's lofty environmental rhetoric and show widening divisions within his cabinet.

The country's federal environmental agency approved plans for offshore drilling near the mouth of the Amazon and rock blasting along another river in the rainforest, while Congress is moving to make it harder to recognize Indigenous land and easier to build infrastructure in the rainforest.

These efforts would be controversial in normal times. But on the eve of the COP30 climate summit, environmental advocates say they're undermining Lula's claims to be an environmental defender whose administration has made headway in slowing deforestation in the Amazon.

"What will Brazil show up with at COP30 in November?" asked Cleberson Zavaski, president of the National Association of Environmental Public Servants. "Will it be, once again, a list of commitments that contradict what the country itself is putting on the table today — such as expanding the highway network and oil exploitation?"

Protecting the environment was a central part of Lula's presidential campaign in 2022, when he ran against President Jair Bolsonaro, who presided over increasing deforestation and illegal activities in the Amazon, such as gold mining and land-grabbing.

But when Brazil's environmental protection agency rejected the bid of Petrobras, the country's state-run oil company, to conduct exploratory drilling in an about 160 kilometers (99 miles) off Brazil's Amazonian coast, Lula supported the company's appeal and in February criticized the agency for taking too long, saying it "seems like it's working against the government."

On May 19, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources or IBAMA, approved an emergency plan to allow the drilling.

A week later, IBAMA approved a rock-blasting operation along 40 km (25 miles) of the Tocantins River to enable year-round navigation, despite criticism from local grassroots organizations. The river, which cuts through the Amazon rainforest, is set to become a critical waterway to ship soybeans, mainly to China.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office said the authorization was illegal because it failed to address issues highlighted during the environmental study, and filed a lawsuit seeking to have it overturned.

Since taking office in 2023, Lula has argued that Brazil can both further its development while protecting the environment.

"France, the U.K., Norway and the U.S. also produce oil. And Brazil has the cleanest energy mix in the world: 90% of our electricity comes from renewables," Lula said in an interview to French newspaper Le Monde published last week.

Brazil gets most of its own electricity from hydropower and other green energies, while its oil exports, a major source of income for the country, are on the rise.

Emails to the president's chief of staff seeking comment were not answered.

On May 21, the Senate approved sweeping legislation that weakens federal agencies' environmental licensing powers. Among other measures, the bill streamlines review for projects deemed priorities by the federal government, reducing the approval process from three bureaucratic steps to one and imposing a one-year deadline for review. (AP)