(AFP)- The president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva He said this Wednesday that Brazil should take advantage of the “opportunity” to explore for oil in waters near the mouth of the Amazon River, despite criticism from environmental defenders.
“We want everything to be legal, respecting the environment. But we are not going to waste the opportunity to make this country grow,” Lula said in Rio de Janeiro, in an event attended by investors from Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s leading hydrocarbon producers.
The off-shore oil project, in an area called “equatorial margin” (northeast) which houses the mouth of the Amazon, It is highly controversial and generates tensions even within Lula’s government.
Its Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, is openly opposed and the environmental protection agency Ibama refused last year to grant a license to the Brazilian public company Petrobras to carry out exploratory oil drilling in the area, considering that there had been no presented the necessary studies.
But the new president of Petrobras, Magda Chambriard, who took office last month, indicated in her first press conference that he wanted to “accelerate” the exploration of new reserves, including the region near the mouth of the Amazon River.
Environmental defenders point out a paradox in that Lula continues to defend the exploration of fossil fuels while seeking to establish himself as a prominent figure in the fight against climate change, with the proven achievement of having halved deforestation in the Amazon on last year.
Next year, Brazil will host the UN Climate Conference COP30 in Belém, a city in the Brazilian Amazon.
“COP30 will be a determining event for the planet. Without everyone’s efforts, global warming could reach catastrophic levels,” Lula noted on Wednesday, recalling that southern Brazil was devastated by historic floods last month.
“No denialism is capable of refuting the tragedy that befell our brothers in the south,” he said.
