Dec 3 (Reuters) – Brazil will never join the OPEC+ group of oil-producing nations as a full member and instead only seeks to participate as an observer, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday.
Lula’s remarks to reporters at the U.N. COP28 climate summit in Dubai clarified his statements a day earlier that Brazil would “participate” in OPEC+.
“Brazil should join OPEC+, it could be an observer,” Lula said on Sunday. “Brazil will never be a full member of OPEC, because we don’t want to be. What we want is to influence.”
Environmentalists in Brazil and abroad have criticized Lula’s administration for pitching itself as a climate leader thanks to its success in reining in deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, while still moving ahead with plans to drill massive offshore oil finds.
Emissions from burning fossil fuels like oil and coal are considered the principle cause of climate change.
Lula said that it is important for Brazil to participate in OPEC+ in order to advocate that countries rich from oil proceeds invest some of that money in helping poor developing countries in Africa and Latin America to invest in renewable energy such as solar and wind.
