Bonn, Germany – Climate justice activists and Indigenous representatives staged a protest today inside the UN climate talks in Bonn, where Brazil’s COP30 presidency is seeking to position the country as a global climate leader. As Brazilian negotiators promoted their vision for climate action in the conference, large banners were opened inside the conference venue reading “No More Fossil Fuels,” “Climate Leadership Is Not Made of Oil,” and “Our Future Is Not Up For Sale”. Chief Ninawa Inu Huni Kui also held a powerful Indigenous ceremony.
The protest comes in direct response to a major contradiction playing out in real time as the Brazilian government (through the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) is conducting the 5th Cycle of the Permanent Offer of Concessions, a massive oil and gas auction that includes blocks in the Equatorial Margin, one of the most sensitive and biodiverse regions of the Amazon.
Ilan Zugman, 350.org Latin America and Caribbean director, says, “While the Brazilian COP30 presidency speaks of a global mutirão for climate action – a word with indigenous origins that means collective effort rooted in solidarity, community-driven transformation, and collaboration – this oil and gas auction tells another story. Expanding fossil fuels in the Amazon not only undermines the spirit of the mutirão, it betrays it. This isn’t just about emissions, it’s about injustice. By auctioning off the forest and the Amazon coast to oil companies, the government is violating the rights of Indigenous peoples, endangering traditional communities, and lighting the fuse of the very destruction it claims to prevent. We must see a plan for the just energy transition without fossil fuels – You can’t lead on climate while fueling the crisis.”
Luene Karipuna, spokesperson for the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) and executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of Amapá and Northern Pará, says, “Talking about the climate crisis is talking about the lives of Indigenous peoples, who are already feeling its impacts. International agreements are important, but they must translate into concrete actions within countries. Science is clear: fossil fuels are the main drivers of the crisis. We need a just energy transition built through dialogue and respect for Indigenous peoples, unlike Belo Monte dam, in Brazil, which only brought destruction. President Lula must declare the Amazon a fossil-free zone and guarantee our right to life, with direct funding to Indigenous organizations in order to address the impacts we’re already facing in our territories.”
Cacique (chief) Ninawá Huni Kui, says, “Brazil is preparing to host COP30 in Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, while approving new oil and gas auctions. This is not an energy transition, it’s an energy contradiction. It’s incompatible to celebrate climate commitments with one hand while signing off on the expansion of the fossil frontier with the other. It’s even more serious when this expansion directly threatens Indigenous territories. Indigenous peoples are not just defending the forest – we are part of the forest. Attacking our bodies and our lands is attacking what still sustains the planet’s climate balance. There is no climate justice without historical justice. There is no future with new oil. And there is no coherence in hosting a COP while deepening the extractives model that brought us to this crisis. Brazil can be part of the solution, but that requires political courage to say no to fossil auctions and yes to the permanent protection of all biomes and their peoples. We are here to remind the world: the COP cannot be a stage for climate marketing. It must be a turning point. And the turning point begins now.”
Clara Junger, Brazil Campaigns Coordinator at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative:
“Expanding oil and gas exploration while positioning Brazil as a climate leader is a glaring contradiction. The ANP’s auction of 172 blocks on June 17th undermines the country’s climate commitments, especially as it prepares to host COP30. Pushing for 47 new blocks in the Amazon River Basin not only threatens Indigenous and traditional communities but also the global climate. With just 0.06% of oil revenues allocated to the energy transition, it’s clear where the priorities lie. The world urgently needs a global agreement to phase out fossil fuels equitably, and at the very least, we must halt this reckless expansion.”
Romain Ioualalen, Global Policy lead at Oil Change International, said:
“At COP28, governments committed to an equitable transition away from fossil fuels – an agreement largely being ignored by rich countries. Not only are Global North countries continuing to open new oil and gas fields, but just a handful of them are planning to massively expand oil and gas production in the next decade. While fossil fuel phaseout timelines for countries like Brazil should not be the same for rich Global North producing countries, the COP30 host is acting in fierce contradiction to the 1.5°C survival limit.
“Brazil, both as COP30 host and aspiring Global South climate champion, cannot hide behind other countries to justify its own expansion plans. As this year’s UN climate talks host, Brazil should be seizing the opportunity to enable conditions for the Global South to transition away from fossil fuels while ensuring prosperity and development – not locking themselves into destructive oil and gas expansion for decades to come. ”
Claudio Angelo, International Policy Coordinator at Observatório do Clima, says:
“The Brazilian government needs to stop sabotaging the COP30 presidency. Here in Bonn, Brazilian diplomats are working hard to bring countries together to solve the greatest collective challenge of humanity, but in Brasília the order remains ‘drill, baby, drill.’ President Lula must understand that his true legacy won’t be a bunch of oil wells, but the ability to use Brazil’s influence in the only global agenda the country is truly capable of leading – the environmental one.”
Patrícia Suarez, spokesperson for the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC):
“Amazonian Indigenous territories have contributed for years to regulating the global climate and are fundamental to preventing climate collapse. The Amazon cannot remain at the mercy of changing governments. We welcome the current decision by the Colombian government not to expand oil concessions in the Amazon, but we demand that this becomes an irreversible policy to protect life and our territories.”
Notes to editor
As world leaders gear up for COP30, the planet’s most important climate summit – set to take place in the Amazon – the Brazilian federal government is failing to show true climate leadership at home. The Brazilian government must stop expanding oil frontiers – especially in the Amazon – and present a detailed, transparent plan for a just energy transition. That means setting clear targets, securing funding that doesn’t depend on fossil fuels, and prioritizing the rights of Indigenous and traditional communities who have safeguarded these territories for millennia. Without these actions, any talk of climate leadership rings hollow.
Recent statements by Petrobras president Magda Chambriard – who went so far as to echo the infamous phrase “drill, baby, drill” from US president, Donald Trump – along with controversial comments by Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira and even President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have further stirred the issue. These plans are fundamentally at odds with the government’s public climate pledges and threaten to undermine Brazil’s credibility as host of COP30.
Resistance to fossil expansion has been growing in Brazil.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) of Pará has filed a lawsuit to try to stop the auction, denouncing socio-environmental risks. In recent weeks, Brazilian civil society, and Indigenous and traditional communities organizations protested the auction, warning it could result in, over time, an additional 11.1 billion tonnes of CO₂e – more than agribusiness over six years and 5% of the global carbon budget for 1.5°C. Just the 47 blocks in the Amazon Estuary could emit 4.7 billion tonnes. Research from the Climainfo institute also shows that oil and gas revenues in Brazil are not funding the energy transition in the country: In the past seven years only 0.06% of oil money in Brazil has been invested in transition-related projects. The Brazilian government lacks a clear, goal-oriented just energy transition plan, revealing the empty promise behind continued fossil fuel expansion.
In addition, more than 60 Indigenous Caciques (chiefs) from the Oiapoque region have recently rejected oil exploration activities in the area, citing the lack of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) and the serious risks to lives, territories, and future generations. Pan-Amazonian Indigenous leaders, representing nine countries and all Brazilian biomes, have also issued a political declaration ahead of COP30 demanding the end of fossil fuel exploitation, amongst other demands. The path forward demands courage and political will: to leave oil in the ground, to stand with those who protect the forest, and to build a future towards a just energy transition.
Press Contacts
Mariana Abdalla (GMT-3)
mariana.abdalla@350.org
+55 (21) 99823‑5563
Nathalia Clark (GMT-3)
+55 61 991371229
Pascale Hunt (GMT+8)
pascale.hunt@350.org
+6281236661189
Leave A Comment