Brazil allowed oil drilling near the Amazon ahead of the climate summit
Kyiv • UNN
Brazil has allowed oil giant Petrobras to drill near the Amazon, which could make the country one of the world's largest oil producers. Environmentalists warn of the consequences of deep-water drilling and call the decision sabotage of the global climate summit COP30.
On the eve of the World Climate Summit in Brazil, local officials allowed the oil giant Petrobras to drill an oil well in the Amazon basin. Environmental organizations warn about the consequences of deep-water drilling for the region's nature.
UNN reports with reference to dpa and Globo.
Details
The Brazilian Institute of Environment (Ibama) allowed the oil and gas concern Petrobras to obtain a license for exploratory drilling near the Amazon, in the Foz do Amazonas area. As officials explain, if the potential of Foz do Amazonas is confirmed, it could help Brazil enter the top four global oil producers in the next decade.
The decision was made shortly before the UN World Climate Change Conference (COP30), which will be held in Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon. Against the background of the approval of an oil well near the protected area, environmentalists issued a warning about the consequences of deep-water drilling for the environment.
Brazil has just taken a dangerous step in the wrong direction in the face of the climate crisis. Even after three warnings from the Federal Prosecutor's Office about risks and violations, the environmental agency Ibama issued Petrobras a permit to drill oil wells at the mouth of the Amazon.
The Brazilian network of environmental organizations Observatorio do Clima emphasizes in its appeal that the issuance of the license is a "sabotage" of the global climate summit COP30, which Brazil will host next month in the city of Belém in the Amazon.
Comments from climatologists
Sueli Araujo, coordinator of public policy at the Climate Observatory:
On the one hand, the government is acting against humanity by encouraging further expansion of fossil fuels and betting on increased global warming. On the other hand, it hinders COP30 itself, the most important result of which should be the gradual elimination of fossil fuels.
Physicist Paulo Artaxo, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said that Brazil should focus on the potential of renewable sources.
Brazil has the opportunity to become a world power in solar and wind energy. The opening of new oil fields will further exacerbate climate change.
Addition
What to expect at COP30? Probably - contrast. Despite energy policy and "permissiveness" for local oil and gas monopolists, Brazil will join the international community's call to accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels.
Recall
Oil prices on Tuesday showed a second consecutive day of decline amid fears of oversupply and risks to demand related to tensions between the US and China.
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