The Brazilian incongruence, the Amazon and COP30

The Brazilian incongruence, the Amazon and COP30

Gabriela Ramírez[1], OBELA[2]

The Amazon is the largest tropical rainforest in the world. It is home to approximately 20% of the planet's flora and fauna, as well as 20% of global freshwater (located in the Amazon Basin). By hosting 60% of the rainforest's 6.92 million square kilometres, Brazil bears the most significant responsibility for protecting this planetary lung. This text provides an overview of the Brazilian government's most recent actions on environmental issues and their potential impact on the Amazon rainforest.

In July 2025, Brazil's Chamber of Deputies approved, by a vast majority (267 votes in favour and 116 against), the so-called "Devastation Law", which seeks to weaken the country's environmental legislation. The new law aims to reduce ecological obligations for companies and silence Indigenous peoples. This project, supported by the agribusiness sector, meant that for specific permits, a simple declaration of environmental commitment from companies would suffice for approval. It also created the Special Environmental Licence (LAE), which allows the rapid authorisation of projects deemed strategic by the government.

Before the enactment of this law, environmental licensing procedures were public. Operators with high ecological impacts were required to conduct public hearings during the process to present their Environmental Impact Report. Likewise, requests for ecological licences had to be published, and regulators' decisions to grant or deny them also had to be publicly disclosed.

Lula da Silva enacted the law but annulled or modified 63 of its roughly 400 articles. He reinstated the licensing rules in force for strategic projects, which until now have helped halt the devastation of the Amazon. Congress vetoed 26 of the provisions overturned by the Brazilian president and 37 rewritten in a new bill submitted to Congress. The Licence by Adhesion and Commitment (LAC)—a self-licensing scheme without prior evaluation by regulatory bodies—was limited to projects with low polluting potential; state and municipal autonomy to define their own rules and LAC-eligible projects, eliminated; and protections for the Atlantic Forest, a highly threatened biome stretching along the Brazilian coast, were maintained. Furthermore, he vetoed the possibility of conducting environmental licensing processes on Indigenous or quilombo lands—territories granted to descendants of formerly enslaved people—that lack formal demarcation without approval from the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI) and the Palmares Foundation. The "Devastation Law" entered into force. However, the presidential amendments will undergo review by a legislature dominated by the opposition forces to Lula, which has repeatedly rejected initiatives from the current government.

In late October 2025, Petrobras received approval to drill offshore in the Foz do Amazonas Basin, risking oil spills that threaten the Amazon's ecosystem just weeks before COP30.

Brazil is the largest oil producer in Latin America, with 3.4 million barrels per day in 2024, although it gets half of its energy from renewable sources. The country is also in the process of electrifying its mass passenger transport system and expanding private electric vehicle use. These processes come with significant Chinese investment. BYD, a leading electric-vehicle manufacturer, inaugurated a production plant in Camaçari, Brazil, in July 2025. Built on the site of a former Ford plant, it became the company's largest facility outside Asia.

President Lula has defended the development of new oil projects, arguing that revenue from fossil fuels will help combat poverty and finance the energy transition. Brazil's position on fossil fuels resembles Norway's: it exports oil and natural gas while using renewable energy domestically.

Although the exploration area lies more than 500 km from the mouth of the Amazon River, strong marine currents could carry leaked oil towards the coast in the event of an accident. Should this occur, the delicate ecosystem—already weakened by climate-change impacts—could be destroyed, endangering Indigenous communities in the region that depend on fishing.

COP30, held in Belém, Brazil, did not achieve the expected success, as it failed to establish a roadmap for the transition away from fossil fuels. The final agreement excluded demands for the gradual phase-out of conventional energy sources and emission reductions aimed at limiting the advance of climate change.

Despite celebrating reduced Amazon deforestation in 2024, Brazil's recent laws and projects, such as the approval of offshore drilling, contradict its climate commitments and undermine conservation efforts.