When Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, returned to power, he had an ambitious goal: restoring the country’s image as a champion of climate action.
He promised to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, raise global funds to tackle the climate crisis, and curb the rampant destruction of the Amazon Rainforest — just as he had done in his first two terms.
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Hosting this month’s United Nations climate summit — held for the first time in the Amazon — would be a triumphant return of sorts, offering Lula, a left-wing leader, the chance to cement Brazil’s return to the world stage as a leading voice on climate diplomacy.
However, three years after returning to office, Lula arrives at the world’s most important climate negotiations with a more ambiguous record.
Under his watch, Brazil has managed to drastically reduce deforestation in the Amazon, which plays a crucial role in absorbing planet-warming greenhouse gases.
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But the country also angered climate activists by trying to relax environmental laws and allowing, just weeks before the summit, oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River for the first time.
“This sends a really bad signal to the world,” said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental organizations. “It’s impossible to imagine a worse time for this.”
Lula defended the decision to drill near the Amazon, arguing that oil revenues will help Brazil finance its transition to cleaner forms of energy.
But the controversy threatens to tarnish Brazil’s image abroad and weaken its influence in climate talks — known this year as COP30 — at a crucial time, as nations prepare to debate abandoning fossil fuels in order to limit global temperature rises.
And Brazil’s seemingly contradictory approach highlights a central challenge facing Lula and other leaders around the world: how to balance environmental ambitions with domestic economic and political realities.
Brazil’s plans to drill for oil in an offshore area near the mouth of the Amazon River have lain dormant for years, caught in a web of environmental studies and political resistance.
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Environmental groups have been pressuring Brazil to abandon the project, warning about the risks of oil spills that could cause lasting damage to one of the most ecologically important regions on the planet.
Then, last month, Brazil’s environmental agency granted a license to the state-owned oil company to search for oil deposits allegedly buried nearly 3,000 meters below the seabed, at a point where the Amazon River flows into the Atlantic Ocean.
Environmental advocates quickly accused Brazil of climate hypocrisy, which the government disputes.
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Marina Silva, Minister of the Environment, explained that Brazil was only allowing the exploration of the area’s oil potential, and not the drilling itself — which, if it occurs, will take years.
She added that seeking oil is “perfectly compatible” with Brazil’s plans to stop burning fossil fuels, a process that will take decades.
“It’s a contradiction, and there’s no doubt about it,” Silva said in an interview with The New York Times. But Brazil, she added, is not alone in clinging to fossil fuels while promoting clean energy. “This contradiction exists all over the world.”
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Lula has been a staunch supporter of oil exploration in the Amazon, arguing that the world will need the commodity for many years to come. A longtime advocate of combating poverty and inequality, he presents the project as a way to generate jobs and development for Brazil’s impoverished north.
“As long as the world needs this, Brazil will not waste wealth that can improve the lives of the Brazilian people,” said Lula recently in defense of drilling.
Protecting the Amazon basin — two-thirds of which is in Brazilian territory — is crucial to slowing climate change, as the forest absorbs and stores vast amounts of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, in its trees, leaves and soil.
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Scientists agree that the global average temperature cannot rise more than 2°C compared to the beginning of the industrial era. Exceeding this limit would increase the risk of severe heatwaves, storms, wildfires and drought.
Last year — the hottest on record — global temperatures had already risen 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
In recent decades, vast areas of the Amazon have been devastated and burned to make way for cattle ranching and soybeans.
Scientists warn that the forest is approaching a point of no return, where it could turn into a savannah and release decades of accumulated carbon emissions.
Forest destruction accelerated under Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right former president who promoted opening the Amazon to commercial development. During his government, deforestation reached the highest levels in 15 years, and some regions of the forest began to emit more carbon than they absorbed.
By making the environment a pillar of his agenda, Lula returned to the Presidency in 2023 after defeating Bolsonaro by a narrow margin. He promised to reverse his predecessor’s environmental policies and the destruction they would have caused, restoring Brazil’s global reputation as guardian of the planet.
“I’m here to tell you all that Brazil is back,” Lula said at the 2022 UN climate summit in Egypt, weeks after his electoral victory, as attendees applauded and shouted his name.
Lula certainly had a track record to back up his promises. During his first two terms, from 2003 to 2010, his policies — which included strengthening enforcement and rewarding communities that preserved the forest — reduced deforestation by 80% and turned Brazil into a global environmental success story.
And in many ways, Lula has fulfilled his promises to repeat this success in his current term.
After taking office, he quickly began placing large areas of the Amazon under federal protection — a process stalled by Bolsonaro — in what environmentalists consider one of the most effective ways to preserve forests.
Lula also reinforced the bodies responsible for combating environmental crimes, which had been depleted of resources and personnel by his predecessor.
Deforestation in the Amazon fell by 50% between 2022 and 2025, reaching its lowest level in 11 years, according to data from the Brazilian space agency. The country’s greenhouse gas emissions fell 12% in 2024 compared with the previous year, according to government data.
Still, Lula faced opposition in the Brazilian Congress, which weakened protections for indigenous lands and reduced licensing and environmental review requirements for development projects.
Although Lula vetoed some of these measures, analysts expect right-wing parliamentarians aligned with Bolsonaro to overturn these vetoes in the coming months.
Some environmentalists fear that Brazil’s initial foray into oil near the Amazon could pave the way for a rush to drill for fossil fuels in the region, with immense consequences.
The government has already auctioned exploration rights in more than two dozen other blocks spread across the same offshore area and is considering selling drilling rights in more than 100 other areas in the future.
“It’s a risky path,” said Astrini. “And Brazil will have to explain itself.”
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