Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is pushing to approve exploratory oil drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River before November’s U.N. COP30, an initiative which clashes with his image as a climate leader. A staunch defender of the project, Lula and his allies argue that oil revenues will fund Brazil’s renewable energy transition, a claim environmentalists strongly reject. 

Critics challenge the lack of concrete plans to invest oil revenues in renewables and argue that the billions of dollars spent on fossil fuel subsidies and state-owned oil giant Petrobras’ offshore drilling could instead support clean energy and climate adaptation.

“We don’t need to burn the planet to fund solutions to save it,” Ilan Zugman, director of 350.org for Latin America and the Caribbean, told Mongabay. “It’s not like there is no money for the energy transition — we are just missing political will.”

The push to drill off its northern coast, in an area known as the Equatorial Margin, coincides with Brazil’s Feb. 19 announcement of joining three international energy forums, including the Charter of Cooperation between Petroleum Producing Countries (CoC) as a participating country. The CoC is linked to OPEC+, a bloc of major oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and the UAE. The government claims this move will promote debate on energy transition within the alliance. But according to Brazilian climate news nonprofit ClimaInfo, the move signals Brazil’s alignment with major oil producers and increases pressure to expand fossil fuel projects.

The contrast between Lula’s push to accelerate fossil fuel extraction and his efforts to position Brazil as a global leader in climate action is especially stark as the country prepares to host the U.N. climate summit COP30 in Belém. More than 100 nations will gather in the Amazonian city to commit to environmental protection, including phasing out fossil fuel use. 

“The Brazilian government is trying to use COP30 to greenwash a decision that is dripping dirty oil, handing over to the oil industry one of the most important areas in the world for climate protection,” Kumi Naidoo, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said in a press statement.

COP30 President André Corrêado Lago denied any contradiction between Brazil hosting the climate summit and supporting oil exploration, saying the country remains committed to its net-zero goals. Lula also dismissed the criticism, arguing that Western nations exploit resources freely and Brazil should have the same rights. “Are we [Brazilians] the only ones who are going to eat bread with water? No. We like bread with mortadella.”

Lula also advocated oil as a path toward economic growth, lamenting that neighboring countries Guyana and Suriname were “rich at the expense of the oil they got 50 kilometers [31 miles] away” from Brazilian territory, and argued that Brazil should also cash in on this wealth.

The approval of the exploratory license rests with Brazil’s environmental agency, IBAMA, which rejected Petrobras’ proposal in May 2023. Now back under review, the license has no set deadline for a decision, although IBAMA expects it will be after March. Environmentalists warn that its approval would deepen the gap between the government’s climate leadership claims and its actions.

“The Brazilian government needs to decide whether it will work for the survival of the planet and those who are most vulnerable to the climate emergency, or whether it will continue with contradictory discourses and actions,” Zugman said in a press statement.

Oil tarnishing climate gains

In the first two years of his third mandate, Lula’s policies brought significant environmental successes, including reducing Amazon deforestation and raising Brazil’s emission reduction targets. But studies warn these achievements could be undone if the potential oil reserves along the Amazon coast are exploited.

Researchers from Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions estimation system calculated that drilling the oil expected to be found off the coasts of Amapá and Rio Grande do Norte in the north of Brazil could emit enough greenhouse gases to cancel out the benefits of reduced Amazon deforestation, reported Agência Pública, a Brazilian investigative platform.

Lula’s conflicting priorities emerged following the Feb. 1 election of Davi Alcolumbre as president of the Senate. A representative of Amapá, Alcolumbre strongly defends oil extraction, which would bring significant economic benefits to his state due to its proximity to the potential drilling site.

After Alcolumbre’s win, Lula ramped up pressure on IBAMA and sought broader support for the project. He accused IBAMA of stalling the license review and acting against the government, despite the agency having already approved more than 2,000 offshore drilling licenses across Brazil and playing a central role in reducing Amazon deforestation. He also claimed Environment Minister Marina Silva would back the project because “she is intelligent.” Silva did not directly respond to Lula’s comments, but later defended prioritizing clean energy. 

CNN reported that in a bid to accelerate the license approval, the government may replace IBAMA president Rodrigo Agostinho with Lula ally Márcio Macêdo among the potential candidates.

President Lula, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and IBAMA did not reply to Mongabay’s request for comment.

Brazil’s Association of Environmental Specialist Career Servers (ASCEMA) condemned political pressure to push IBAMA into approving oil exploration in the Equatorial Margin, adding that the environmental agency’s decisions are based on technical, scientific and legal criteria, according to its official statement. 

“Any type of political pressure that seeks to interfere in the technical work of the agency is inadmissible, especially when it is a decision that can result in irreversible environmental damage.”

High-risk oil expansion

The Equatorial Margin, which the oil industry believes contains huge reserves of oil, stretches more than 2,200 km (1,367 mi) off the coast of northern Brazil. Within it is the mouth of the Amazon (also known as Foz do Amazonas), where the Amazon River meets the ocean and extends offshore into deeper parts of the Atlantic. Within this basin are several geographic areas designated for oil exploration, known as blocks, with Petrobras seeking to drill in one such site known as Block 59, located 160 km (99 mi) from Amapá. It’s an area rich in biodiversity, home to sensitive coral ecosystems, and has strong currents that could spread oil spills rapidly out of control.

“A spill in this region would have catastrophic consequences for coastal communities, marine ecosystems and the global climate,” Sila Mesquita, general coordinator of the Amazon Work Network (GTA), said in a statement.

Indigenous organizations warn that the oil exploration threatens local Indigenous communities, particularly those in the Oiapoque region of Amapá. They face risks from potential oil spills and noise pollution from Petrobras’ private aircraft flying over their territory.

“These projects not only threaten the lives of Indigenous peoples but also cause irreversible environmental damage, destroying forests, contaminating rivers and compromising the future of the next generations,” Toya Manchineri, general coordinator COIAB, an umbrella group of Indigenous organizations in the Brazilian Amazon, said in a press statement.

Furthermore, several activists say Petrobras has not yet addressed the concerns of the Indigenous communities, as required by Convention 169. This international treaty adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) recognizes the right of Indigenous people to be consulted on projects affecting their lands, resources and way of life. It legally binds ratifying countries, including Brazil, to ensure meaningful consultation and protection of these communities.

“The state-owned company has been studying the region for at least two years, but so far it has not consulted the quilombolas and other peoples who live near the site and fear that their communities will be harmed,” the National Coordination for the Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities said in a press statement.

Petrobras did not reply to Mongabay’s request for comment.

France’s Total and the U.K.’s BP abandoned efforts to operate in the area after failing to get the necessary license from IBAMA. When IBAMA later rejected Petrobras’ proposal for an exploratory license, it cited environmental concerns and Indigenous rights violations. Petrobras submitted a revised proposal at the end of 2024, which its president, Magda Chambriard, said met all of IBAMA’s requirements.

Suely Araújo, public policy coordinator at the Climate Observatory and former IBAMA president, opposed the issuance of any environmental licenses for oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon. “The region of block 59 is environmentally very sensitive and with very strong currents,” she said in a statement. “IBAMA technicians have been pointing out the problems associated with these conditions for years.” 

Brazil’s growing oil power

Petrobras estimates the oil reserves at the Equatorial Margin at 10 billion barrels, which would add significantly to Brazil’s proven 15.9 billion barrels in 2023. Most of this new production is intended for export.

Encouraging oil use seems counter to Brazil’s interests. Fossil fuels drive greenhouse gas emissions, and Brazil is already feeling the impact: climate-related disasters in the country have risen by 460% since the 1990s.

If IBAMA approves the license for Block 59, critics of the oil project fear it could open the door for other exploration projects at the mouth of the Amazon.

Brazil’s petroleum agency, ANP, is planning an oil auction on June 17, offering 332 blocks across Brazil, including 47 in the Mouth of the Amazon Basin. These blocks have failed to sell in past auctions due to the high financial risk of not securing drilling licenses. However, if Petrobras gets approval before the auction, interest from other fossil fuel companies could rise. The auction will also include 21 onshore oil blocks in the Parecis Basin in central Brazil, in areas close to several Indigenous lands.

“How do you claim you want to preserve the Amazon, to regulate the world’s climate if you are opening a big frontier that will risk communities, ecosystems, mangroves, Indigenous people and of course, the broader world?” Zugman said.

Banner image: On February 12, activists and riverside residents posted on Guajará Bay in Belém, the host city for this year’s UN climate conference COP30, with banners saying ‘President Lula, don’t trade the Amazon for oil’. Image © Eliseu Pereira / 350.org