Head of Brazil's gas giant Petrobras criticized for 'drill, baby, drill!' comment about the Amazon

SAO PAULO (AP) — The caput of Brazil's state-run state and lipid elephantine Petrobras was facing disapproval connected Friday aft a video emerged of her saying “Drill, baby, drill!” erstwhile speaking astir arguable lipid exploration adjacent the rima of the Amazon River.

Magda Chambriard made the remarks Tuesday during the Offshore Technology Conference, successful Houston. In a video obtained by the Brazilian paper Valor Economico and published Friday, Chambriard is seen addressing Clécio Luís, politician of the Amazonian authorities of Amapa, who was successful the audience.

“We bash judge we volition person precise bully surprises erstwhile we person the (environmental) licence to drill. So what 1 wants to accidental to Amapa is, ‘Let’s drill, baby, drill!’" Her comments prompted a circular of applause, including from Luís.

Petrobras did not instantly respond to an email petition for comment. The institution confirmed the authenticity of the video, according to Valor Economico.

U.S. President Donald Trump has agelong utilized the operation “Drill, baby, drill!” successful expressing enactment for accrued lipid exploration and production.

“The ‘let’s drill, baby’ rhetoric whitethorn comfortableness manufacture leaders and short-sighted policymakers, but past volition retrieve them arsenic the ones who buried the 1.5 C goal," said Natalie Unterstell, president of Talanoa, a clime argumentation deliberation tank, referring to the internationally adopted purpose to support warming nether 1.5 C since pre-industrial times.

Climate alteration is caused by the merchandise of greenhouse gases similar c dioxide. Oil, from exploration to its assorted uses, is simply a cardinal operator of clime change.

Chambriard was appointed by Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose biology grounds successful the Amazon is mixed. While helium has curbed deforestation and championed the Amazonian metropolis of Belem arsenic the big of the U.N.'s COP30 clime acme successful November, helium besides supports Petrobras’s propulsion to drill for offshore lipid astatine the ecologically delicate rima of the Amazon River and different large projects that bring biology interaction to the world´s largest tropical forest.

Exploratory offshore drilling adjacent the Amazon, whose reserves are unknown, is expected to gully scrutiny during the COP30 summit. A cardinal propulsion of the yearly clime talks has been to trim the usage of fossil fuels specified arsenic oil, state and coal.

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