Brazil Prez Lula turns back on declared oil policy at UN climate talks

DUBAI: Fresh off election victory, a year ago Brazilian President-elect Inacio Lula da Silva was the star of the annual UN climate talks.

Lula promised to crack down on deforestation and turn Brazil into an environmental leader, a complete turnaround after President Jair Bolsonaro rolled back regulations and encouraged land-grabbing in the Amazon. “Lula! Lula! Lula!” many onlookers screamed during Lula’s many events at COP27 in Egypt.

What a difference a year makes.

Just as Lula addressed world leaders at COP28 in Dubai, it was announced that Brazil would join OPEC+, a group of big oil-exporting countries, including Russia.

At one event during the conference, Lula tried to explain the decision by saying that, once inside, the South American nation would push other oil-producing countries to transition to green energy—a curious explanation given that state-run oil company Petrobras is focused on further oil exploration. Lula later clarified that Brazil would be an OPEC observer, not a full member.

In his speech to world leaders, Lula implored delegates to go beyond “eloquent but empty words.” In a subsequent session with Environment Minister Marina Silva, Lula teared up when he talked about the need to protect forests.

Instead of chants of adulation, Brazil received a Fossil of the Day award from Climate Action Network International, a non-award given to countries whose actions support fossil fuels, the main cause of climate change.

Natalie Unterstell, president of Talanoa, a Brazilian think tank focused on climate, said Lula’s approach to the environment was focused on curbing deforestation, Brazil’s largest source of carbon emissions, which his administration has managed to slow by half since taking office in January. That approach served him well during his first terms, between 2003 and 2010, but that is no longer enough, she said.

“Lula can’t be a climate leader without a real energy transition policy,” she said.

“It’s time for him to update his programming software.”

Lula has had a long and complicated relationship with oil. When huge reserves were discovered off Brazilian shores in 2006, Lula said: “This discovery … proves that God is Brazilian.”

Indeed, as Brazil became a major oil producer over the next decade, the money helped Lula, and then successor President Dilma Rousseff, fund major social programs that lifted tens of millions of people from poverty.

Today, Brazil is the world’s ninth largest producer, with 3% of global output, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Oil has become so important that it’s now Brazil’s second export product after soy, producing 3.67 million barrels a day. By far, China is the country’s largest buyer.

At a climate conference focused on reducing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, which oil and gas products let off when burned, environmentalists have been quick to note the contradiction.