"Brazil's auction of hundreds of oil and gas concessions on the heel's of COP28 has angered climate and Indigenous rights activists"
"RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva urged countries to "work towards an economy less dependant on fossil fuels" during the COP28 climate talks that ended on Wednesday with a deal to transition away from oil and natural gas.
But hours after the deal was struck, his government put up for auction a record 603 gas and oil drilling concessions covering 2% of the country's area, according to an analysis by environmental nonprofit Arayara International Institute.
As industry executives entered a beachside hotel in Rio de Janeiro to present bids for energy fields that could produce up to 1 gigaton of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to Arayara data, there were protests outside by climate and Indigenous activists and representatives of "quilombola" descendants of enslaved Africans."
Andre Cabette Fabio reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation December 15, 2023.
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