Brazil’s state-owned oil company won approval to drill near the mouth of the Amazon River, just weeks before the country hosts the COP30 climate summit.
The move granting Petrobras an exploration license has been sharply criticized, including by Brazil’s own environment minister. But other senior officials defended the decision, arguing that Latin America’s biggest economy needs to shore up its energy independence amid global economic uncertainty, and that Brazil should only transition away from fossil fuels as part of wider international efforts.
The plan represents “the future of our energy sovereignty,” Brazil’s energy minister wrote on X.
