Name: Between oil and oxygen: Brazils balancing act
Uploaded: 2025-11-11T15:23:50.827Z
Duration: 2 min 27 s
Description: Brazil cut deforestation by a third, yet lost twice as much primary rainforest to fire. Now it’s expanding oil drilling near the Amazon. Can the host of COP30 walk its own climate talk?

Brazil cut deforestation by a third, yet lost twice as much primary rainforest to fire. Now it’s expanding oil drilling near the Amazon. Can the host of COP30 walk its own climate talk?

Rio de Janeiro

Brazil is at the forefront of global climate discussions, simultaneously recognized for its leadership in renewable energy and criticized for its plans to expand oil exploration in the Amazon region. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration has made significant progress in reducing illegal deforestation, with government data showing a drop of over 30 percent in 2023, but the country continues to face severe environmental challenges, including record droughts and increased wildfires.

Despite generating more than 80 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, Brazil has approved new oil exploration licenses, arguing that profits from oil exports could support its green transition. The government is also preparing to launch a global fund at COP30 to incentivize the preservation of tropical rainforests, highlighting the country's ongoing struggle to balance economic interests with environmental protection.

Between oil and oxygen: Brazil's balancing act

A renewables powerhouse, and host of this year's top global climate event. But also, planning to drill the Amazon River for oil. Brazil is now at the center of climate contradictions. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has promised to end illegal deforestation by 2030. And last year, according to government data, overall deforestation rates dropped by more than 30 percent, a major turnaround. But the region is facing ever-worsening challenges. Fueled by the worst drought in 70 years, wildfires swept across the tropical regions of the country, and primary rainforest loss more than doubled in 2024 compared to the year before. It's a new kind of destruction. Not chainsaws, but fire wiping out old-growth forests that sequester carbon, house biodiversity, and provide a defense against climate change. Brazil gets more than 80 percent of its electricity from renewables, mostly hydropower. A clean energy leader. But it recently approved new oil exploration licenses at the mouth of the Amazon. Even though we're not burning this oil, we're selling the oil for someone else to burn. Therefore, we are contributing to climate change by expanding our oil production. The government argues the profits from future exports could help finance its green transition. It was decided that rich countries will lead the race for decommissioning and reducing CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use, both producers and consumers, with developing countries following afterward. After years of rising deforestation, especially under Bolsonaro, Lula's first two years flipped the trend. Thanks in large part to tough reinforcement and indigenous protections. But the fires, along with political pressure from agribusiness, continue to test those gains. At COP30, Brazil plans to launch a global fund to pay nations for keeping tropical rainforests standing, and attempt to make trees worth more alive than cut down. A radical move from a country still balancing between oil and oxygen. For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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