At Amazon summit, offshore oil is elephant in the room
Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira and Environment Minister Marina Silva were silent during a joint statement to the press on Monday regarding exploration of offshore oil reserves near the mouth of the Amazon River, a region known as the Equatorial Margin. The two cabinet ministers are at opposite ends of an internal government debate about oil drilling in the ecologically sensitive area.
Speaking ahead of the Amazon Summit, Mr. Vieira said that heads of state from the Amazon region will issue a joint declaration tomorrow on new goals and tasks for cooperation regarding the rainforest.
CNN Brasil aired an interview on Sunday during which Mr. Vieira said mineral exploration “must be carried out with every possible margin of safety.”
In May, federal environmental agency Ibama denied Petrobras a license to drill an exploratory well in the Equatorial Margin, citing “worrying inconsistencies” in the companies’ studies intended to assure that oil exploration activities would be environmentally safe. The company appealed to Ibama, but there is no timeline established for a new decision.
Significant recent oil discoveries in Guyana heightened interests in reserves within Brazil’s territorial waters.
Ms. Silva said today that “the Amazon is drastically threatened”, and that Amazonian countries need to work together to avoid “a point of no return” for the rainforest, but she did not specifically address the issue of offshore drilling.
She added: “It’s not the moment for erratic attitudes. Any attitude that does not consider what science says can commit irreversible mistakes.” The minister went on to say that, even if deforestation halts completely, the Amazon will continue to be harmed by the burning of fossil fuels.
The meeting of parties to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty (ACTO) is held in the city of Belém, Brazil’s pick to host the UN climate summit, COP, in 2025.
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