It is not only two decades that separate the passage of Marina Silva (Rede) to the Ministry of the Environment under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). There is a change in the position of environmentalists, the result of political maturity and the difficulty of facing a strengthened and predominantly opposition Congress, say the people close to the minister interviewed by GLOBO. If, in 2008, Marina left the government criticizing the pressures to issue licenses and complaining about the department’s lack of prestige with Planalto, today she sees, according to her allies, the need to better choose priority negotiations to reap victories. We also have the impression that there has been an evolution in his relationship with Lula; one of the reasons why she chooses to remain in office despite disagreements, particularly in the area of the Brazilian energy matrix.
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At the same time, Marina is weighing the possibility of running for Senate next year. As Lauro Jardim’s column showed, the minister is discussing the possibility of affiliation with the PT. The PSB is also a possible destination for the environmentalist, who left the acronym in 2015 to found the Network. Marina plans to leave her current party after being defeated in April’s internal elections by the group led by her former ally Heloísa Helena.
During her time in government, Marina achieved victories, such as reducing deforestation, resuming an institutional plan in the region and even vetoing the proposal to relax environmental licensing – these were later overturned by Congress, but Planalto’s position was seen as a nod to Marina. However, she faces disagreements on the Esplanada dos Ministérios. For André Lima, extraordinary secretary for Deforestation and Regional Planning at the Ministry of the Environment, the difficulty is natural for a broad coalition government, whose contradiction is also located within the leadership.
— The minister has convincing internal work on several issues. Political maturity is synonymous with greater discernment, which translates into a more judicious choice of wars to prioritize. In this polarized scenario of ideological politicization, it is not possible to open countless battle fronts at the same time with everything and everyone, Lima says.
Marina’s departure during Lula’s second term came after a series of disagreements with the federal government, including a clash with then-Civil Home Minister Dilma Rousseff, who was pushing for environmental licensing for factories on the Madeira River in the Amazon. The last straw came when Planalto decided that coordination of the Management Council of the Sustainable Amazon Plan (PAS) would fall to the Minister of Strategic Affairs at the time, Roberto Mangabeira Unger, who had not participated in the preparation of the project.
— Marina tried to speak to Lula on the day of his resignation, but was unable to do so. She realized that there was no way to implement the proposal for transversality between ministries in the environmental agenda of this government and decided to leave — says Maristela Bernardo, retired Senate consultant, who has worked on the environmental cause since 1985. — There are changes in the current government. In the same way that she has become more flexible in the way she negotiates, Marina does not lose sight of the actions she wishes to take. The minister swallows the frogs she needs to repair the damage later.
One of Lula’s goals upon returning to the presidency was to restore Brazil’s image as a leader in climate action, including presenting the ambitious goal of proposing a “road map” for ending the use of fossil fuels at COP30 and, therefore, reducing global warming.
The rapprochement between Lula and Marina occurred during the 2022 campaign, fourteen years after his departure from the government. Marina announced her support, without the guarantee that she would be a minister, because she believed that the PT deputy would be able to defeat Jair Bolsonaro, who was seeking re-election. A minister close to Lula told GLOBO that the president and the environmentalist “missed each other.”
However, investments in oil exploration and public pressure for an acceleration of the permitting process in the Foz do Amazonas basin pit the Planalto against the marina.
For former Minister of the Environment José Carlos Carvalho, “deciding to explore oil in the region is inconsistent given the Brazilian position at COP30”.
— We cannot forget that Brazil is an oil country and that the interests of the sector are extremely powerful politically. The balance of power in this area within the government is unfavorable to the Environment, starting with the president himself. I consider this to be the main divergence with what Marina defends – considers Carvalho, who headed the government department of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Lula’s predecessor.
Former Environment Minister Carlos Minc, who succeeded Marina during Lula’s second term, understands that the environmentalist’s maturity is demonstrated by the fact that she weighs gains and losses and understands the limits of how far she can go as minister.
— It is not his department or Ibama which defines the country’s energy policy, it is the President of the Republic. Marina opposed the issue of drilling in the Foz do Amazonas basin, but this was not possible. On the other hand, she felt prestigious at COP30, and Lula listened to her more. One needs the other more (now) than during his second term, says Minc.
Members of the federal government also point to an improvement in Marina’s relations with the Chief Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa. After a start to the mandate marked by differences, the interlocutors see as examples of the predisposition of this ministry to accept the demands of the Environment the “conquering of all the vetoes demanded by Marina in the law on licenses” and the support for “all the conditions linked to territorial governance in the discussion on the asphalting of BR-319”.
The debate on the paving of the highway, in the heart of the Amazon, gave rise to a dispute during a session in the Senate during which the minister was the target of attacks, accused of slowing down Brazil’s development in terms of environmental licenses. According to members of the government, this is a turning point in Rui Costa’s relationship with Marina.
For Tasso Azevedo, environmental engineer and creator of the Brazilian Forest Service, the National Plan to Combat Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAm) and the Amazon Fund in the first Lula governments, the political capital acquired by Marina over time helps in negotiations within the government:
— The first Lula governments had a Congress that was less bad than the current one. What was possible before would no longer be possible today. I don’t think the minister is any more flexible these days. She trusts science and is much more experienced in politics. And the fact that it has a very broad historical coherence generates a more stable relationship with President Lula.
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