Key Points
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has cast himself as a champion of the fight against climate change, but faces criticism from environmentalists for Brazil's booming oil production.ge..
Since returning to office for a third term in January 2023, the veteran leftist has made solid progress on his pledge to end illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, which fell by half last year compared to 2022..
The timing earned Brazil, the world's ninth-biggest crude producer, the "Fossil of the Day" award from the Climate Action Network, which said the country's leaders "appear to have mistaken oil production for climate leadership." ..
Lula came to office vowing "Brazil is back" in the climate fight after four years of surging destruction under far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) in the Amazon, whose hundreds of billions of carbon-absorbing trees are a key buffer against global warming..
But even as the Lula government fought to protect the Amazon, Latin America's top oil producer also racked up several monthly crude output records last year -- most recently in November, when it produced nearly 3.7 million barrels a day..
