Ahead of Brics, Brazil official slams developed countries for 'no interest' in helping others
A high-ranking Brazilian government official issued a broad criticism of Western developed countries including France on Thursday, in the run-up to a meeting of Brics energy ministers in the South American country's capital.
Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira said in a press briefing that the world's developed countries had "no interest" in helping developing nations industrialise, and that Brics members would need to work together to achieve this goal.
The minister veered into the diatribe after a question about criticism about Brazil's oil exploration in the equatorial fringe of the Amazon.
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"There is not a single time when I go to France where Le Monde and other French media do not question Brazil's position ... to [insist on] a global energy transition ... and, at the search for oil off the Brazilian coast."
"I always respond, very objectively, that it's a shame that France doesn't have oil and has one of the biggest oil companies in the world, even exploring off the Brazilian coast," he said.
Silveira, who is chairing the Brics Energy Working Group in Brasilia this week, also excoriated "those who proclaim international interests that are most certainly not ours".
The group's meeting is one of many Brics conferences that lay the groundwork for this year's summit in Rio de Janeiro in July.
Silveira's comments come at a time when Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is trying to unite the Brics countries on climate finance ahead of the 2025 United Nations Conference of the Parties - more commonly referred to as Cop30. The forum for climate negotiations is set to convene in Brazil in November.
Last month, Brazil's Brics negotiator, Ambassador Mauricio Lyrio, said that developing countries were dissatisfied with the outcome of the 2024 climate conference in Azerbaijan, stressing the need to align the Brics countries' priorities at Cop30.
"In terms of financing and given the need for a greater volume of climate finance, the results were modest," Lyrio said, adding that at least US$1.3 trillion is needed to fund the Global South's efforts to decarbonise their economies.
Brazil has also expressed concern about a possible failure of the climate talks in November.
This year's Cop president, Andre Correa do Lago, said the summit was "in exceptional circumstances" and that the results achieved by the negotiators were likely to be "influenced by the decisions of key countries such as the United States, which recently announced its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement".
During Thursday's press conference, Silveira emphasised that the Brics energy group supports a "fair, inclusive and balanced energy transition", using language that tends to run counter to the priorities of US President Donald Trump, a climate science sceptic.
Alluding to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro without naming him, Silveira also criticised supporters of the "new politics", who celebrated Trump's electoral victory last year.
Efforts to slow climate change "should serve to include people with dignity and not exclude them", Silveira said. "All the Brics countries are very aligned in this regard, making significant investments in this model of energy transition."
China, India, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Ethiopia have sent delegations to the in-person talks in Brasilia.
Indonesia, which joined the group this year, and Saudi Arabia will participate via video conference. Iran was not involved in the talks, although Brazil expects it to attend the leaders summit in July.
Silveira said there was "great enthusiasm among Brics members to achieve the meeting's goals" on energy policy, adding that Brazil would build on the progress made at last year's G20 summit.
"For years, there was no consensus document [on energy] at the G20. Last year, we succeeded, and our declaration has already had a practical impact on the energy sector around the globe," Silveira said. "We want to achieve the same with Brics."
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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