The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which accounts for nearly 40% of the world’s crude oil production, said in November that Brazil, Latin America’s largest oil producer, would “join the OPEC+ Charter of Cooperation beginning January 2024,” becoming the organization’s 24th partner worldwide.
However, Brazil, which is slated to become the third regional partner after Mexico and Venezuela, has faced significant opposition. The announcement was promptly condemned by environmentalists, particularly the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
They claim it goes against the country’s environmental objectives.
“This move strengthens the bloc of oil producers and goes against the urgent and necessary energy transition needed to combat the climate crisis, both in Brazil and globally,” said the WWF in a written statement.
Some observers believe it deviates from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s most recent environmental pledges.
During his re-election campaign in 2022, Lula emphasized his intention to halt deforestation and position Brazil as an environmental leader.
It happened after environmentalists condemned Jair Bolsonaro’s four-year presidency. They claim that from 2019 to 2023, the far-right leader ripped back protections, causing ecological catastrophe in the Amazon.
Farmers, loggers, and miners ravaged enormous swaths of the rainforest for mining, crops, and animals. Brazil, which contains 60% of the Amazon, is one of the world’s top exporters of cattle and soy, even though a fifth of the rainforest has already been destroyed.
According to Augusto Heras, a scholar at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), Brazil’s choice to join OPEC+, which operates differently than full membership, is motivated by economic and geopolitical concerns within the context of Brazil’s international financial and “strategic” interests.
Lula stated at the recent UN COP28 climate summit in Dubai that Brazil does not wish to become a fully integrated member of OPEC. “What we want is to have influence,” Lula said to reporters.
According to some sources, Lula has had a “complicated” relationship with oil since substantial deposits were discovered off the coast of Brazil in 2006. During his first term as President of Brazil in the early 2000s, the country became a major oil producer.
