Brazil moves to auction vast oil blocks despite climate and Indigenous concerns
Brazil is set to auction off oil and gas exploration rights in a massive offshore and Amazon region sale, prompting backlash from Indigenous groups and environmental advocates just months before it hosts the Cop30 climate summit.
Constance Malleret reports for The Guardian.
In short:
- Brazil’s energy regulator will offer 172 oil and gas blocks for exploration, spanning an area twice the size of Scotland, including sensitive regions in the Amazon basin.
- The planned auction is part of President Lula’s push to elevate Brazil to the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, with promised oil revenues intended to support economic growth and clean energy development.
- Critics — including environmental groups, prosecutors, and Indigenous leaders — say the auction ignores environmental safeguards, risks violating Indigenous rights, and undermines Brazil’s climate obligations.
Key quote:
“This auction is posing really serious and grave threats for biodiversity, communities and climate.”
— Nicole Figueiredo de Oliveira, executive director of Instituto Internacional Arayara
Why this matters:
Brazil's move to expand fossil fuel development in the Amazon basin and offshore regions threatens one of the planet’s most vital ecological frontiers. The Amazon plays a key role in regulating global climate, storing carbon and sustaining biodiversity. Opening new oil frontiers risks not only emissions on a scale comparable to years of industrial agriculture but also encroachment on Indigenous lands and marine habitats. At a time when international scientific consensus warns against new fossil fuel projects, Brazil’s decision sends conflicting signals about its climate leadership, especially as it prepares to host Cop30.
Read more: Brazil's oil ambitions conflict with environmental promises
