Brazil to host Cop 30: Lula

The UN has accepted Brazil's bid to host the Cop 30 climate conference in 2025, President Luiz Inacio da Lula said today.

The event will be held in Para state's capital Belem, on the edge of the Amazon forest, he said in a video posted on social media.

The president had proposed hosting the event during his visit to Cop 27 in November, when he vowed that combating climate change would have "the highest profile" in his administration.

"Everyone [in Cop 27] was talking about the Amazon, so I said: 'why not hold the conference there?'," he said in the video.

But Lula's environmental agenda has struggled to coexist with Brazil's oil and gas exploration activities. Recently, environmental watchdog Ibama rejected state-controlled Petrobras' request to drill an exploration well in the offshore Foz do Amazonas basin, prompting celebrations from environmentalists while simultaneously drawing the ire of market participants.

Ibama's decision created a clash between Lula's environment minister Marina Silva and several government members who favor drilling in the region. Energy minister Alexandre Silveira had called the area "the passport to the future" to develop Brazil's northern region and has urged Petrobras to appeal the decision. Likewise, senator Randolfe Rodrigues - an important ally of Lula's from the northern state of Amapa, which could reap financial benefits from oil exploration off its coast - promised to fight the decision and withdrew from the Rede Sustentabilidade party, headed by Silva.

Petrobras will not drill the area if "it poses a problem for the Amazon," Lula said while visiting the G7 summit held Hiroshima, Japan, but he said the proposed well is 530km (330 miles) from the forest.

This week, a Brazilian congressional committee approved draft legislation that could limit the powers of both the environment and indigenous peoples ministries, a clear challenge to Lula's environmental goals. The bill strips the environment ministry of control of the rural environmental registry - which is key to fight illegal deforestation - and the indigenous peoples ministries of the role of delimiting indigenous territories.

But Lula has made some moves towards his greener goals, such as calling on the US and other developed nations to fund global efforts to protect tropical forests and visiting China to push his green agenda, among other actions.

Additionally, Petrobras created a new executive board to expand its green investments, headed by Mauricio Tolmasquim. But even he has said that "investing in renewable sources without jeopardizing the company's investments will be a challenge." The company doubled exploration and production investments in the first quarter of 2023.

By Lucas Parolin

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