fevereiro, 19 2025

By WWF-Brasil

The announcement, made today (02/18), that Brazil has accepted the invitation from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to join its "charter of cooperation"—a discussion forum within the group's structure involving OPEC and OPEC+ countries—is deeply concerning. It reinforces the various signals given in recent months that the government is doubling down on an outdated development model reliant on fossil fuels.

The announcement, made by the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, following a meeting of the National Energy Policy Council (CNPE), comes amid unprecedented pressure on IBAMA to approve oil exploration in the ecologically sensitive region of the Amazon River's mouth. It also follows misleading statements by Petrobras executives about the need to expand oil production. The reality is that few countries are as well-positioned as Brazil to transition to renewable energy.

By vowing to “explore oil until the last drop,” as the minister declared last year, Brazil is forfeiting its chance to lead the new decarbonized economy that the climate crisis demands of all nations. Choosing oil locks the country into outdated energy systems and technologies, leaving it dependent in the coming decades on nations that have genuinely developed clean energy solutions.

By aligning itself with the fossil fuel cartel, Brazil is undermining its own agricultural sector, which has been battered year after year by extreme weather events caused by the burning of oil, gas, and coal.

Brazilians are already paying higher food prices due to climate change driven by fossil fuel consumption. It is astonishing that the current government, without presenting an energy transition plan, has chosen to accelerate this backward move precisely in the year Brazil is set to host the UN climate conference—a moment when the world will gather to address the collapse already wreaking havoc on economies and millions of lives globally.

This decision comes in a year when, within just the first few months, thousands of people have lost homes, appliances, cars, and even loved ones to floods and landslides caused precisely by a climate destabilized by the burning of fossil fuels.