In an attempt to retain wealth from mining, Brazilian legislators have proposed the creation of a new state-owned critical minerals firm which would be responsible for developing the country’s vast reserves of rare earth minerals in partnership with foreign investors.
The initiative comes as the US mounts pressure to mine for Brazil’s critical minerals and secure access to supplies outside of Chinese control. But as the US government pushes for new investments, Brazil has struggled to work out how to take full advantage of its minerals, many of which are needed for green technologies.
In late March, Brazilian president Lula da Silva told the Africa-Latin America summit in Colombia that critical minerals are an opportunity for both continents to reject “being mere minerals exporters” and instead “produce nationally to develop our countries”.
In a series of bills introduced last week in the Brazilian Congress, pro-Lula lawmakers proposed the creation of a state agency called Terrabras, which would develop the country’s critical minerals. This is one of at least 13 bills seeking to regulate the sector, Brazilian officials said.
Brazil holds the world’s second-largest reserve – after China – of rare earths, a group of 17 elements such as neodymium and terbium which are key to producing electric vehicles (EVs) and the magnets used in wind turbines. But the country currently produces and refines less than 1% of the world’s rare earths, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Mine to industrialise
Leonardo Durans, senior director at Brazil’s industry ministry, told a press briefing on Tuesday that the debate on how to manage the country’s critical minerals is “absolutely strategic”.
While rare earths are typically scattered and difficult to extract, Brazil’s deposits are found in ionic clay, which is more concentrated and cheaper to produce.
Durans said that Brazil has exported its minerals and imported manufactured technology like EV batteries, magnets and solar panels. “We want to break this logic definitively,” he said. “The directive is not to mine just for the sake of it anymore. We are going to mine to industrialise the country.”
At a global level, as the energy transition boosts demand for minerals, more developing countries are taking steps to reap the benefits from mining. At least 13 African countries have ordered export bans on raw minerals, seeking to create jobs and tax revenues by refining them domestically.
But, as Brazil’s Congress and regulators debate how to benefit from mining deals, the US government has ramped up pressures for mineral supplies. At a major forum hosted by the US government in São Paulo in March, officials said they have interest in at least 50 critical minerals projects – a category which includes rare earths – in Brazil worth billions of dollars.
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Earlier in February, the US government gave a $565-million loan to Serra Verde, the company developing the Pela Ema ionic clay mine in the state of Goiás – which claims to be the only large-scale, heavy rare earths producer outside Asia. The deal includes an option for the US to acquire a minority stake in the company.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s rare earths exports to China boomed in 2025, according to the Brazil-China Business Council, as Chinese investors also race to secure supplies.
Durans said Brazil’s historical policy is to “be friends with all countries from every bloc”, and added that the country will not take a side with the US or China.
“We want to receive this capital that wants to invest in the country but with the counterproposal of joint technological development, so we can have a win-win between Brazil and the US, with the EU or with China,” Durans told journalists.
Critical minerals policy still unclear
Rodrigo Rollemberg, one of Terrabras’ proponents, told Congress that there’s a “race for our rare earths and for our critical minerals” but that “it is very important that we have a public company taking care of these resources”.
Rollemberg’s bill argues it “aims to position Brazil as an active player in the international geopolitics of critical minerals”, while also adding value to the minerals sector, industrialising the country and strengthening its “technological security”.
Mauro Sousa, general director of the National Mining Agency (ANM) and one of the country’s mining regulators, said that the government is currently working on a national policy for critical minerals, which is expected to be published in two to three months.
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One of the gaps at the moment is demand from inside Brazil for the manufacture of magnets, Sousa said, which would take time to build. He added that, while the country should start building its own internal supply chain, “we cannot give a 10, 15 or even 30-year leap that China has already made in a short time”.
Durans said the legislative proposal to create a state firm was “surprising”, as it did not arise from the federal government and was not previously consulted. He added that the government’s focus is on a policy that includes a roadmap for developing domestic supply chains, and requires foreign investors to add domestic value.
Mining industry “concerned”
The Brazilian Mining Institute (IBRAM), composed of mining companies representing 85% of Brazil’s production, expressed concerns over the Terrabras proposal, and argued in a statement that a new agency would not solve the challenges keeping the country from developing its vast rare earths reserves.
IBRAM argued that Brazil, which derives about 4% of its GDP from mining, already has regulatory agencies that have been underfunded for years. They argued that the country instead lacks industrial-scale refining technology, struggles with insufficient funding, “precarious logistical infrastructure” and a scarce workforce.
“None of these obstacles are eliminated by the creation of a public company,” IBRAM said in the statement.
Instead, IBRAM favoured a different bill introduced in Congress towards the end of 2025, which, it said, offers legal certainty, domestic processing, and incentives – “exactly what the sector needs to convert reserves into production”.
The post As US and China seek rare earths, Brazilian lawmakers push for state-owned developer appeared first on Climate Home News.
As US and China seek rare earths, Brazilian lawmakers push for state-owned developer
An Lambrechts is a biodiversity politics expert at Greenpeace International with extensive experience in biodiversity-related multilateral negotiations. She is the head of the Greenpeace delegation at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP17 happening in Yerevan, Armenia.
In 2022, COP15 delivered the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. With COP17 starting in Yerevan, we are now halfway to the deadline, and according to the first Global Review of progress, countries are not on track to meet the biodiversity targets, and implementation must accelerate fast.
One of the main findings of the Global Review is that funding falls far short of the scale needed to halt and reverse nature loss. But the crisis facing the world’s biodiversity is not an absolute scarcity of capital – it is a profound public policy distortion.
The global economy currently spends roughly $30 destroying nature for every single dollar invested in its protection. According to a report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, a staggering $2.4 trillion is spent in public subsidies for fossil fuels, agriculture and water use, while global investment in biodiversity conservation and restoration stands at a mere $220 billion.
Countries urged to ramp up “insufficient” nature policies at COP17
Yet, discussions about how to close the biodiversity finance gap continue to claim that salvation lies in mobilising private capital, scaling offsets and “derisking” investments in nature. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of both the nature of ecological stewardship and of the global financial architecture.
Biodiversity conservation is not a speculative investment portfolio – it is the foundation of human survival. The health of our planet is a non-monetisable, non-excludable public good. Expecting profit-seeking private capital to protect nature perpetuates the structural drivers of ecosystem destruction in the first place.
But if private market mechanisms cannot save biodiversity, where will the necessary public resources come from?
Money going to the wrong places
The answer lies in recovering the vast public wealth currently drained by cross-border tax abuse, financial secrecy and corporate impunity. Finance and environment ministers meeting in Yerevan must give a strong political signal that, to avert ecological breakdown, countries need to take swift action to reform global tax rules, eliminate harmful public subsidies and cancel unsustainable sovereign debts for the public revenues to end up where they belong.
Extractive sectors such as industrial agriculture, fishing, timber and mining continue business-as-usual, often heavily subsidised by public treasuries, while voluntary carbon and biodiversity offset markets pose a serious risk to nature conservation. Offset schemes have delivered only a negligible fraction of the funding needed to preserve ecosystems, allowing industries to continue with their destructive business-as-usual practices.
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In advanced economies, public funding often actively undermines biodiversity. In Europe, over €5.3 billion in public subsidies is funnelled annually into intensive forest biomass harvesting under renewable energy directives, degrading primary forest ecosystems and undermining long-term climate resilience. Pleading with private investors to fill a “finance gap” while pouring billions into ecological destruction is an exercise in futility.
Developing countries struggle with debt burden
For developing countries, reliance on private finance is further compounded by a crushing sovereign debt crisis. In 2024, public debt in developing economies reached record levels, with net interest payments alone absorbing $921 billion. A record 61 developing countries now spend more than 10% of government revenue on foreign debt service, with many climate-vulnerable nations spending twice as much servicing external debt as they receive in climate and biodiversity finance combined.
This burden acts as a structural driver of ecosystem destruction. Under pressure from external creditors and international financial institutions to avoid default and secure foreign exchange, governments are routinely forced into austerity measures and pushed to expand raw commodity exports into pristine biomes.
Comment: World Bank and IMF should lead the financial system in responding to the climate crisis
The current negotiations for a United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (UNFCITC) also offer a way forward. An estimated $492 billion in tax revenue is lost every year to offshore tax havens. Multinational corporations account for around $348 billion of this total by shifting profits away from the countries where real economic extraction and environmental degradation occur.
In the mining sector alone, developing nations lose tens of billions annually to corporate tax dodging. Furthermore, international financial secrecy shields environmental criminals, with illicit financial flows from illegal logging draining between $51 billion and $152 billion annually.
At COP17, leaders must seize the opportunity to build a bridge between the two conventions and enhance cooperation. Governments must put the world on a firm path to securing predictable, sufficient, sovereign public finance for biodiversity conservation. It’s the only path to a restorative, rights-based future for people and the planet.
The post Protecting nature is a public duty, not a Wall Street profit opportunity appeared first on Climate Home News.
Protecting nature is a public duty, not a Wall Street profit opportunity
Climate Change
Greenpeace delivers 47 metre-long petition with half a million signatures to Woodside HQ following major gas protest
Greenpeace delivers 47 metre-long petition with half a million signatures to Woodside HQ following major gas protest
PERTH, Monday 19 October 2026 — Dozens of Perth community members delivered a giant petition, signed by almost half a million people, to Woodside’s corporate headquarters this morning, calling on the government to save Scott Reef from Woodside’s reckless Browse gas proposal.
Dressed in sea creature costumes and hats, supporters carried one of Australia’s biggest environmental petitions to Woodside’s headquarters, and a local choir performed a ‘Scott Reef’ rendition of Angie McMahon’s iconic cover of ‘Reckless’ by Australian Crawl.
On the sidelines of the Perth Global Citizen Now event, it comes following a two day-long protest at Woodside’s Scarborough gas platform that saw activists scale and occupy the Floating Production Unit calling to “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas” and “Save Scott Reef”. The activists were taken from the platform by police helicopter on Sunday afternoon.
David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Less than a day after two Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists were arrested for their peaceful protest at Woodside’s Scarborough gas platform to save Scott Reef, we are here again with another message to Woodside: half a million of us do not want your dirty gas at Scott Reef.
“Community pressure on Woodside is rising. Today we are here to show Woodside that they can’t ignore half a million people who want Scott Reef protected, not turned into an industrialised gas zone.
“Woodside can’t be trusted with our oceans. Woodside’s plans to drill up to 57 toxic wells at Scott Reef, Australia’s largest oceanic reef, putting endangered pygmy blue whales at risk, and jeopardising a nesting ground for unique green sea turtles.
“We Australians love our oceans and this is an opportunity for our governments to do the right thing, to reject Woodside’s reckless drilling plans, and save Scott Reef.”
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Media contact
Kate O’Callaghan on +61 406 231 892 or Emma Sangalli on +61 431 513 465
Climate Change
Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists in police custody after two-day protest against Woodside’s Browse gas project at Scott Reef
PERTH, Sunday 18 October 2026 — Two Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists are in police custody after occupying a gas platform at Woodside’s Scarborough gas project, in peaceful protest of the fossil fuel corporation’s plans to drill for oil and gas at Scott Reef.
NEW footage and photos of the peaceful protest available here and on Instagram
The activists used specialised climbing equipment to scale and attach themselves to a Floating Production Unit (FPU), a key piece of gas processing infrastructure at the Scarborough gas field over 200km off the coast of Exmouth, at around 05:45am AWST on Saturday and proceeded to occupy the platform for two days, displaying banners reading “Stop Woodside’s Dirty Gas. Save Scott Reef.”
Special police forces landed a helicopter on the FPU at around 11:30am AWST. The activists safely removed themselves from their equipment before being taken into police custody around 1:00pm AWST. At the time of writing, no charges have been laid.
David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “It takes guts and conviction to do what our activists have done, peacefully protesting Woodside’s reckless gas plans at Scott Reef.
“Woodside’s plans to drill up to 57 toxic wells at Scott Reef are outrageous. If allowed to go ahead Woodside would turn Scott Reef, Australia’s largest oceanic reef, home to nesting green sea turtles and elusive pygmy blue whales, into an industrial gas zone. Around half a million people have called on our governments to stop Woodside and to save Scott Reef.
“Our activists are highly trained and experienced in these activities. West Australia has a proud history of peaceful, democratic protest at sea, to protect our oceans from environmental threats. From whaling in Albany in the seventies, to Woodside’s threat to Scott Reef today, there’s more than fifty years of history, of Greenpeace taking action off WA’s coast to protect the places we love.
“Peaceful protest has long been part of what has given us so many of the things that are great about Australia and is part of the fabric of our democracy and our national identity.”
“The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to a healthy democracy. From Australia to the Arctic and the Amazon, Greenpeace has been peacefully protesting for more than 50 years to expose the biggest environmental threats around the world. We will not be silenced by corporations like Woodside who actively try to stop everyday people from speaking out against their reckless plans.
“Woodside’s reckless proposal to drill at Scott Reef is an unacceptable risk to Scott Reef and to the climate, which our government should emphatically reject.”
Speaking from the Rainbow Warrior, Captain of the Rainbow Warrior Hettie Geenen, said:
“It felt powerful watching from the Rainbow Warrior as these brave activists scaled Woodside’s enormous and imposing gas infrastructure, which has no place at Scott Reef. We are all out here because we feel an urge to act, in the face of Woodside’s grave threat to Scott Reef and to our climate. Now we ask for the Australian government to act too, and reject Woodside’s reckless Browse project.
“Just before this peaceful protest, the Rainbow Warrior sailed to Scott Reef, where our whole crew got to witness the magic of an untouched, healthy reef ecosystem full of marine life. It was my second time visiting Scott Reef with the Rainbow Warrior. When you see Scott Reef up close and witness its magic first hand, it is impossible not to feel driven to try and protect it.”
The activists sailed to Scarborough on the Rainbow Warrior, Greenpeace’s flagship vessel, which is in the region campaigning to protect Australia’s oceans, including Scott Reef.
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Media contact
Greenpeace Australia Pacific media team in Perth on +61 406 231 892 or +61 407 581 404 or email media.au@greenpeace.org