Images of the action at the São Braz Market (live updates), Belém, Brazil - 14/02/2025 - Credit: João Paulo Guimarães
Images of the action in Guajará Bay, Belém, Brazil - 13/02/2025 - Credit: Eliseu Pereira
Belém, February 14, 2025 – Minutes before Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrived at a ceremony held in Belém to announce federal investments for COP30 and its legacy, environmental activists from 350.org, the Amazonian Working Network (GTA), the Marajó Observatory, Pororoka collective and Engajamundo protested by unfurling a large banner, reading: “Destroying the Amazon for oil and gas is not worth the price”.
The protest took place in front of a building that had just been renovated for COP30, the UN’s international climate change conference. Hosted this year by Brazil, the country has the opportunity to play a key role in leading in the international process to bring about concrete actions to reduce carbon emissions and for a just energy transition.
Yesterday, on the shores of Guajará Bay, activists and local residents also protested with banners in boats.
The mobilizations are a direct response to recent statements by President Lula, with the support of COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago, pressuring Brazil’s Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources’ (IBAMA) to authorize oil projects at the mouth of the Amazon and arguing the need to maintain oil as a solution to the energy transition. The allegations disrespect the agency’s mandate and the population of the region, as well as fail to consider the serious human, environmental and climate risks of perpetuating the abusive exploration and use of fossil fuels, the biggest cause of global warming.
The protests are also in response to the announcement by the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) that it will hold a new oil and gas auction on June 17, with 332 exploration blocks, 47 of which are in the Amazonas Basin.
Ilan Zugman, 350.org’s Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said:
“The government spreads disinformation when it says it needs more oil to finance the energy transition. This narrative is simplistic and disrespectful. To put it in perspective, more than 80% of the tax incentives offered by the Brazilian federal government for the energy sector are directed towards fossil fuels. The Brazilian federal government invests more than 15 billion dollars in subsidies for fossil fuels.
It is also shameful that members of the federal government are speaking out against the rights of the most vulnerable people in the country who are suffering the most from the climate crisis. President Lula should be speaking out in favor of the rights of Indigenous peoples and traditional communities to prior, free and informed consultation, as well as Brazil’s Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources’ (IBAMA) right to monitor and protect our environment, in accordance with their mandate. But we are seeing the opposite effort.”
Suane Barreirinhas, an activist from Vila da Barca, a suburb of Belém where riverine people live, said:
“It’s time we use COP30 to echo the voice of those who feel the climate crisis on their skin: fishermen, river dwellers and children. We want information for everyone, a democratic conversation about the future of the planet. Let this space, our river, be the stage for our fight against this “development” that affects us. We’ve already seen the Belo Monte disaster and we won’t accept drilling at the Amazon Basin now. Fish is with açaí, not oil!”
Valma Teles, Executive Director of Marajó Observatory, said:
“Oil exploration at the mouth of Amazon is a disregard for the human rights of local communities, including the right to land, water and health. For the government to rush through a project full of socio-environmental risks and which has no popular legitimacy in the territories in order to avoid getting burned at COP30 is to make a fool of us, the peoples of the forests and waters, and the whole world. Where is the investment in another energy matrix? Where are the decentralized solutions? We can’t keep waiting for unkept promises and continue to deal with the lack of adequate policies for a real energy transition.”
Ana Carolina, an Engajamundo activist, said:
“Oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon has the potential to cause extreme damage not only to the ecosystem, but also to the people who depend on it. The impact comes first in the traditional communities, in the riverside communities, in the people who need the standing forest and the clean rivers to continue living. For Amazonians, this is a matter of survival. The profits from oil exploration don’t reach those most affected, and the ‘progress’ that is so often talked about as the main justification for oil activities doesn’t reach the poorest sections of the population. What remains for the people are the impacts on their territories, their food and their lives in general.”
Sila Mesquita, General Coordinator of the Amazonian Working Network (GTA) said:
“It is unacceptable that in the 21st century we are discussing opening up new frontiers for oil exploration, especially in that part of the Amazon, a region of unique biodiversity and essential for climate balance. The science is clear: there is no room for new oil and gas projects if we want to avoid climate collapse. Brazil, with all its renewable energy potential, should be leading the transition to a clean future, not insisting on an outdated and destructive model. There is no such thing as ‘responsible research’ when the risk is irreversible. A spill in this region would have catastrophic consequences for coastal communities, the marine ecosystems and the global climate. The government needs to choose which side it is on: the sustainable future or the perpetuation of an economic model that enriches the few at the expense of the environment and traditional populations.”
Note to the editor:
Just over a week ago, indigenous, quilombola and environmental organizations pointed out contradictions on the subject in a joint statement.
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