Weird: COP30 Host Brazil Drilling For Oil In Amazon

The NY Times is shocked over this

Save the Amazon or Drill for Oil? Brazil Says It Can Do Both.

When President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil returned to power, he had an ambitious goal: restoring his country’s image as a champion of climate action.

He vowed to slash Brazil’s emissions of planet-warming gases, raise global funds to tackle the climate crisis and curb the rampant destruction of the Amazon rainforest, just as he had done in his first two terms in office.

Hosting this month’s U.N. climate summit, which for the first time is being held in the Amazon, was to serve as a sort of victory lap, offering Mr. Lula, a leftist, a chance to cement his nation’s return to the world stage as a leading voice on climate diplomacy.

Does this including cutting down lots of the Amazon to build a road to transport the 40K+ people coming to COP30 via fossil fueled flights, then have them drive on said road in fossil fueled vehicles?

Yet three years after returning to office, Mr. Lula heads into the world’s most important climate talks with a more checkered track record.

On his watch, Brazil has succeeded in dramatically reducing deforestation in the Amazon, which plays a crucial role in absorbing the greenhouse gases warming the planet. But Brazil has also angered climate advocates by trying to loosen environmental laws and allowing, just weeks before the summit, oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River for the first time.

“This sends a really bad signal to the world,” said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental groups. “It’s impossible to imagine a worse moment for this.”

I’d think the clearcutting and 40K+ taking fossil fueled trips would be a bad signal. That’s just me.

Mr. Lula has defended the decision to drill near the Amazon, arguing that oil revenues will help Brazil finance its transition to cleaner forms of energy.

But the controversy threatens to tarnish Brazil’s image abroad and weaken its clout in the climate negotiations, known this year as COP30, at a pivotal moment, as nations prepare to debate moving away from fossil fuels to limit rising global temperatures.

Making climate cult signals is easy: actually having affordable, dependable energy is hard, hence the petroleum drilling. Don’t forget, roughly 50% of every barrel is used for around 700 products other than fuels and oils.

And Brazil’s seemingly contradictory approach underscores a key challenge facing Mr. Lula and other leaders around the world: How can countries balance environmental ambitions with the economic and political realities they face at home?

They can’t. But, the big shots do not care, because none o the policies they push hurt their own lives.