Minister of Mines and Energy: Environmentalists against oil in the tropical fringe are a minority

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He says that only a “minority” of activists see talk of the possibility of using oil revenues to finance the energy transition as contradictory. In an interview with GLOBO, Silveira explains why he believes the search for oil in the Foz do Amazonas Basin should not affect the agenda of ending carbon dioxide from fossil sources at COP30.

Do you see a risk that Obama’s authorization to explore for oil in the tropical margin could harm the COP 30 agenda on transitioning away from fossil fuels, which is set out in the Paris Agreement?

Brazil is a leader in the global energy transition and demonstrated this at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30). All the leaders who passed here acknowledged that Brazil is contributing to the climate issue like no other country in the world, both from a forest standpoint and from the standpoint of decarbonizing endogenous materials (which includes oil). In this third term – which we hope will be before the fourth term – the Brazilian people will have the wisdom necessary to continue with President Lula at the forefront of the nation’s destiny, through the global dialogue he encourages, and through the dialogue and synergy he creates between governments and the private sector in Brazil for the country’s development. We will not develop into a more prosperous and more inclusive country, where people enjoy higher per capita incomes, unless we have a balance between exploiting our wealth for the benefit of the country’s growth and, therefore, including the poorest people in employment opportunities and good income.

Oil revenues did not achieve the expected development.

Oil revenues, like revenues from vital minerals, strategic minerals and our natural potential, must be transformed to the benefit of the Brazilian people. These are the tools that we were looking for, these are the tools that President Lula decided that we should seek. Brazil is already a leader in decarbonization and in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I’ve been saying for a couple of years that for those who know this world of energy, oil is not a matter of global supply, but a matter of demand. As long as the world needs this source of oil, we cannot abandon these revenues and these natural capabilities. That would be crazy and unfair to the Brazilian people.

You say that oil revenues in the tropical margin will fund the energy transition, and many environmentalists point out that this is a contradiction. Will the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) announce any transition investment here at COP30?

These “many” are in the minority, because the majority of environmentalists I talk to – and they are many – claim that under President Lula’s leadership, we must go hand in hand in searching for ways to raise awareness in the world. This is what President Lula did at events such as the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), where he demonstrated the potential of the forest and provided an example of what Brazil is doing in the field of biofuels, among other things. This is an example for the world to adopt the same position as Brazil, and can actually implement the transformation that has occurred since the Paris Agreement, through the Copenhagen Agreement, and which the rich and industrialized countries have had difficulty adhering to.

Environmentalists were protesting at COP30 against drilling in the tropical margin.

Many of the environmentalists who stand out are sometimes in the minority, because the majority here in the COP applaud Brazil’s actions, and are trying to raise awareness in the world alongside our development sphere. If everyone did what Brazil did, we would be able to achieve the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Now, it is important to paraphrase former US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who already said at the COP in India that the case for decarbonisation, emissions reductions, net-zero and compliance depends on the awareness and resolute power of leaders like President Lula to combat denial.

Environment Minister Marina Silva spoke in Belém, ahead of the COP30, about the difficulty of reducing oil consumption and said the energy transition cannot happen by decree. Has the discourse of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment become more consistent with the Ministry of Environment? What is the dialogue like?

The dialogue was always very good. There was a natural concern of the Minister of Mines and Energy and his entire team so that we could, as quickly as possible, license this great potential of the tropical margin, this great wealth that is the national oil, especially since it is an oil with much lower emissions than other oils explored in the world. This oil is being drilled in Brazil properly, because we have Petrobras, one of the largest oil companies in the world, and one of the safest, with the experience of doing it right to avoid environmental accidents. So there was concern about the speed of this, but of course there was from the environment the necessary interest in Trupras to fulfill all its obligations. The license will be issued at a time when Petrobras has fulfilled all its environmental obligations and complied with environmental legislation. This is what happened now. Therefore, the Ministry of the Environment cannot refuse to promote the important potential that Brazil has.

What about energy transformation?

What we will seek now is, through dialogue, to have in the fourth term of President Lula, a great project to accelerate the energy transition, to continue our path and our path of decarbonization in Brazil and to send signals to the world and to give President Lula more activity, more power in his rhetoric, so that the world copies Brazil in biofuels, imitates Brazil in the advancement of wind, in the development of solar energy, in oil exploration properly, and thus, achieving the NetZero goal in 2050.