On 21 August the Brazilian government announced plans to expand investment in fossil fuel projects near the mouth of the Amazon River, despite President Lula’s commitments during his election campaign to protect the Amazon rainforest and fight climate change. The investment is planned to be around $69bn.
Under Lula’s predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, deforestation and environmental destruction of the Amazon reached a 12-year high. Between 2009 and 2019, the Amazon’s carbon absorption from the atmosphere fell by about a third each year because of its deforestation, driven primarily by agribusiness land grabs and the expansion of mining. The Amazonian indigenous population was also hugely affected by the deforestation, suffering extensive and severe malnutrition and sickness.
Most of Lula’s support against Bolsonaro in the presidential elections came from the working class and indigenous communities. Yet his Congress and Senate position is, as in the past, dominated by right- wing forces, and so while pressures are mounting on his leadership to deliver on his promises and maintain control over the country, he is also accommodating the Brazilian ruling class. The new fossil fuel projects will be located an area of environmental sensitivity that provides subsistence fishing for the coastal communities. Local indigenous communities have protested the proposal and its inevitable environmental pollution and contribution to the climate crisis.
Members of Lula’s office have claimed oil drilling expansion is a necessary step towards renewable energy. In reality, Lula is making a choice which protects the selfish interests of the Brazilian ruling class.
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 296 October/November 2023
