Press statement by brazilian NGO Observatório do Clima
In the final hours of the International Conference for the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, in Santa Marta, Colombia, the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, released a proposal for a National Energy Transition Plan that keeps oil, gas, and coal in Brazil’s energy mix until 2055.
The Brazilian NGO Observatório do Clima does not recognize Silveira´s proposal as Brazil’s roadmap to overcome its dependence on fossil fuels, commissioned in December by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The roadmap should come from an interministerial effort, with social participation, and, of course, it should propose a real energy transition—not the continued production, export, and consumption of fossil fuels beyond mid-century.
“It is embarrassing for Brazil, which was praised as the proponent of roadmaps in Santa Marta, that a transition plan that does not propose any transition is presented by one of Lula’s ministers while 60 countries are trying to have a serious debate here in Colombia about how to move away from fossil fuels,” said Claudio Angelo, International Policy Coordinator at Observatório do Clima. “In fact, embarrassing President Lula seems to be a specialty of Minister Alexandre Silveira, who in the recent past used a climate conference to announce Brazil’s entry into OPEC+,” he added.
Observatório do Clima calls on the other ministries involved in drafting the roadmap guidelines (Finance, Environment, and the Chief of Staff’s Office) to remain committed in producing them, and for Lula to resolve the impasse with the Ministry of Mines and Energy in order to uphold his promise of a genuine national roadmap.
