The president-designate of this year’s climate summit in Brazil played down accusations from campaigners that the South American country’s plans to boost oil and gas production is in conflict with the drive to reach net zero.
“We are thinking of a ‘net zero’ that incorporates some years continuing to use oil,” André Corrêa do Lago, president-designate for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in November told the Financial Times in an interview published on Friday.
The pledge for transitioning away from fossil fuels “allows considerable flexibility,” Corrêa do Lago told FT.
The pledge was made at the COP28 summit in Dubai at the end of 2023, whose final communique included a compromise text referencing for the first time a call to all parties to transition away from fossil fuels.
But the final agreement was watered down compared to any references to phasing out or phasing down of fossil fuels, as objections from many oil exporting countries – led by Saudi Arabia – held back talks.
COP30, which will be held in the Amazonian city of Belem in Brazil, will aim to assess progress on climate goals and transitioning from fossil fuels.
The upcoming summit’s president-designate told FT, “I believe that all countries are analysing how they can reach net zero in a way that is economically viable, technologically viable, and that logically should go in the direction of the transition away [from fossil fuels].”
Corrêa do Lago noted that the United States and Norway are also boosting oil production, just like Brazil and its state-held energy giant Petrobras.
The company plans to raise its oil and gas exploration and production and has earmarked billions of U.S. dollars of capex over the next few years. Petrobras’s investment plan for the five years to 2029 stands at $111 billion. Of this, $77 billion is earmarked for oil and gas exploration and production activities.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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