Policy ambiguities could become more pronounced in the two years leading up to Cop 30, which Brazil will now host
The UN has accepted Brazil's bid to host the Cop 30 climate conference in 2025, according to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The event will be held in Para state's capital Belem, on the edge of the Amazon forest, he says. The president proposed hosting the event during the Cop 27 gathering in November, when he said he would give the fight against climate change "the highest profile".
But his environmental agenda has struggled to coexist with oil and gas exploration. The recent rejection of state-controlled Petrobras' request to drill an exploration well in the offshore Foz do Amazonas basin has led to a rift between environment minister Marina Silva and some other members of the government. Energy minister Alexandre Silveira has urged Petrobras to lodge an appeal, while senator Randolfe Rodrigues — an ally of Lula's from the northern state of Amapa, which could reap financial benefits from offshore oil exploration — has promised to fight the decision and withdrew from the Rede Sustentabilidade party, headed by Silva.
Petrobras will not drill in the area if "it poses a problem for the Amazon", Lula said while visiting the G7 summit in Japan earlier this month.
Adding pressure to his environmental pledges, a congressional committee has approved draft legislation that could limit the powers of the environment and indigenous peoples ministries. The bill strips the environment ministry of control of the rural environmental registry — which is key to fighting deforestation — and the indigenous peoples ministries of the role of delimiting indigenous territories.
But Lula has made some moves towards his greener goals, including calling on the US and other developed nations to fund global efforts to protect tropical forests and visiting China to push his green agenda.
