Brazil will not get rid of oil quickly, says scientist – 03/20/2023 – Environment

The scientific coordinator of Rede Clima (Brazilian Research Network on Climate Change), Moacyr Araújo, said this Monday (20th) that he believes that the country will not stop depending on oil in the near future.

The statement was given when he was questioned by the Sheet about the federal government’s commitment to oil exploration, especially in the Amazon.

“We are not going to get rid of oil that quickly, okay? This is a finding not only of Brazil, but of the planet”, he said, during a press event promoted by Instituto ClimaInfo and FAPESP on the results of the new report by the panel of the UN climate change (IPCC).

The Climate Network has the role of supporting research activities of the National Plan on Climate Change and is linked to the MCTI (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation).

According to a report prepared by the International Energy Agency, to reach zero net carbon emissions by 2050, it is essential that no investments are made in new fossil fuel extraction projects. The target is one of the steps towards complying with the Paris Agreement and limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

Araújo pondered that it is necessary “to make a lot of effort to reduce the fossil matrix”, but that oil is not used only to make fossil fuels. He points out that around 10% of the production of the petrochemical industry is focused on plastic, a number that, the researcher estimates, should reach 20% by 2050.

“It will be very difficult to stop the generation [de plástico]because it has applications that go beyond a pet bottle, with the whole surgical, hospital, etc issue, which strongly depends on the plastic industry.”

The researcher pointed out that massive plastic pollution is another problem to be faced and that this material needs to be reused and used in energy generation. “I think we have to manage this issue,” he said.

“I’m absolutely against new explorations in areas of high biodiversity potential, without prior analysis, etc. But saying and assuming that we’re going to get rid of oil in the next ten, 20 years, I think it’s illusory. It’s better to work precisely in this way of working. mitigate that there, how to turn that excess into energy again.”

Ana Toni, chosen to head the National Secretariat for Climate Change at the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, was also present.

In response to the same question about oil exploration in the new government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), he said that it is necessary to draw up sectorial plans “to make the difficult choices about what we have to give up as quickly as possible and the things that It’ll take a little longer.”

“With regard to fossil fuels, all energy sources logically have environmental impacts. Fossil fuel is the first that we are going to have to solve, but we have to look [os impactos] as a whole,” he said, adding that he would not comment on exploration in the Amazon.

One of the points addressed in the context of the climate discussion is the just transition, that is, how to make the energy transition taking into account that developing nations still depend on fossil fuels.

Toni states that, in the case of Brazil, there is a problem to equate the economic, social and carbon reduction aspects and that the solution for the transition involves efficient management.

“Mechanisms that maybe we didn’t give so much emphasis in the past become priorities now, so we can speed up the necessary measures to make these difficult choices. If it’s not fossil fuel in the Amazon, what is it? How are we going to do it?” keep the economy going, with the population continuing to be served in the best possible way? These choices require good governance management.”

Mercedes Bustamante, president of Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) and one of the reviewers of the new IPCC synthesis report, which was also part of the press conference, pondered that, in the just transition, the objective is to guarantee that people employed by the fossil sector have training and work in this transition.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}