The Guardian

Politicians reviled environmental minister Marina Silva in the senate this week, but new legislation is fuelling the fire. (...)

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The Trans-Amazon Highway crosses a deforested area in Brazil. Politicians are trying to force through deforestation projects that are under scrutiny by Marina Silva’s environment ministry. Photograph: André Penner/AP.

At the centre of everything is a long-running row over oil exploration in the Foz do Amazonas. BP and the French oil company Total used to hold most of these rights, but they baulked at the political and environmental challenge of drilling so close to the world’s biggest centre of terrestrial biodiversity. Instead, Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras, stepped up. For Lula – and the senators in nearby regions – that meant potential votes, jobs and export earnings. The only thing standing in their way was the environment ministry, which has delayed a licence for years due to the risks of a possible spill in such an ecologically sensitive area.

That handbrake was lifted earlier this week, when the head of the environmental regulator, Ibama, ignored the warnings of 29 expert advisers by moving on to the next stage of the approval process for operations in the Foz do Amazonas. This capitulation followed pressure from Congress and the president.

This was followed by the biggest legislative setback for the environment in more than 40 years. To the delight of the mining, construction and farming industries, the senate has passed a long-pending bill that strips a range of environmental licensing powers from Silva’s ministry. This piece of legislation – dubbed the devastation bill by opponents – allows companies to self-license or avoid environmental licensing for road construction, dam-building and other projects. It is a shift of control from the representatives of the people to the executives of big companies.

Lula could yet wield a veto on this bill. But so far the president’s response has been tepid. His party has a weak presence in congress, so he depends on a broad and fractious coalition, many of whose members are enmeshed in agribusiness or mining. Next year’s presidential election seems to be weighing on his mind more than November’s Cop30 climate summit in Belém. (...)

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Tags: #english #brazil #brasil #brazilie #Environment #Amazon #rainforest #fossil fuel #deforestation #oil exploration #lula #marina silva