auctions of oil concessions in the country of Lula who claims to be champion of ecology

While COP28 ended with an agreement on Wednesday integrating a transition towards the end of fossil fuels, an auction of oil concessions was organized in Rio de Janeiro.

In Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, under the windows of the hotel where a huge auction of oil blocks, in other words oil concessions, took place on Wednesday December 13, demonstrators came to make a big noise. This sale took place on the same day as the closing of COP28 where participants signed an agreement talking about transitioning away from fossil fuels. Brazil also came en masse to this climate summit in Dubai to act as a good student. President Lula indeed wishes to be a leader in the fight against global warming and has shown his positive record in terms of deforestation, and yet this auction of oil blocks took place.

Demonstrators therefore came to protest against an aberration according to them, what they call “the end of the world auction”. Among them, Marcelo Laterman from the NGO Greenpeace: “We came to demonstrate against the largest auctions ever held in Brazil, more than 600 of oil and gas blocks. These are also the worst auctions because the areas concerned are extremely sensitive from a socio-environmental point of view . More than a contradiction, it is a real affront, only one day after the COP”.

Beyond the greenhouse gas emissions this implies, around 15 protected areas, 23 indigenous lands and five quilombos, communities of descendants of slaves, could be impacted. This is the case of Luiza’s quilombo.

“We didn’t expect that”

Luiza, whose quilombo could be affected

at franceinfo

“We defended Lula so much, thinking that he would listen to us, the poorest. But we are very disappointed, especially since all this was done without even warning us”, she explains. Brazil, already the 9th largest oil producer in the world, intends to gain market share. This strategy therefore contrasts sharply with the ecological ambitions displayed by the Brazilian president.