Brazil’s Vice President, Geraldo Alckmin, participated in the launch of the Biodiesel Alliance, formed by the Brazilian Association of Biofuel Producers (Aprobio) and the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries (Abiove). The ceremony was held in Brasília on Wednesday (Apr. 8).

The partner organizations bring together 16 biodiesel manufacturers operating 33 active plants. According to the member companies, this represents 63.7 percent of Brazil’s biodiesel production capacity.

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For Alckmin, biodiesel is strategic, especially at a time when international conflicts affect the fuel market.

“Instead of importing diesel, which is highly susceptible to global geopolitics, we produce our own fuel here for our country,” he emphasized.

According to the vice president, Brazil is the only country in the world that blends 30 percent anhydrous ethanol into gasoline, in addition to having 85 percent of its vehicle fleet made up of flex-fuel vehicles - that is, vehicles that can run on either ethanol or gasoline.

In Alckmin’s view, the use of biodiesel improves air quality and reduces pollution, as well as cases of respiratory illness. “There is no agenda more positive than this one. It speaks to every sector.”

The vice president also pointed out that biodiesel production has social benefits because it involves small farmers and creates jobs throughout the industrial and service supply chain.

“If we are world champions in agriculture, if we have the most competitive and efficient tropical agriculture in the world, let’s add value: produce biofuels, help the environment and public health, generate jobs and income, avoid importing products, and strengthen our country’s economy,” he added.

Conflict

Alckmin also highlighted the Brazilian government’s initiatives to ensure fuel supplies and mitigate the impact of rising diesel and gasoline prices amid the conflict in the Middle East.

Among the initiatives are the suspension of federal taxes (PIS/Cofins) on petroleum products and a diesel subsidy in collaboration with states and municipalities. “Most states agreed,” he noted.

On April 8 and 9, representatives of the foreign ministries of countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean in the Southern Hemisphere will meet in Rio de Janeiro for the 9th Ministerial Meeting of the South Atlantic Zone of Peace and Cooperation (ZOPACAS).

ZOPACAS is a diplomatic mechanism established in 1986 by the United Nations to keep the region free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. The Zone of Peace and Cooperation comprises Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and 21 countries along Africa’s west coast, from Senegal to South Africa.

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As has been the case throughout its 40-year history, the country hosting the ZOPACAS ministerial meeting assumes the presidency of the mechanism for two to three years. Brazil will succeed Cape Verde.

With the risk of armed conflict reduced among the 24 countries in the region, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry aims to strengthen cooperation.

“For 40 years, United Nations member states have, by consensus, reiterated this declaration [regarding a zone free of weapons of mass destruction]. However, ZOPACAS is also a zone of peace and cooperation, and this aspect, in our view, has not developed to its full potential,” said Ambassador Carlos Márcio Bicalho Cozendey, Secretary for Multilateral Political Affairs at Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Documents

According to the diplomat, the countries are expected to sign three documents in Rio: a convention on the marine environment; a cooperation strategy establishing three areas of action (subdivided into 14 thematic areas); and the Rio de Janeiro Declaration, which is political in nature.

Although it is a “political declaration,” Ambassador Carlos Bicalho rules out the possibility that the 30–40 paragraphs of the text currently being drafted will contain references to conflicts in the Middle East or Eastern Europe. “One should not expect statements on all current events,” he said.

The ZOPACAS ministerial meeting, however, should “reiterate and make clear that this is a peaceful region and that the countries of the region themselves are capable of and interested in maintaining it as a region of peace and security” and “prevent extra-regional powers from bringing their conflicts and problems here,” the diplomat added during a press briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brasília.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to attend the meeting’s closing ceremony.

Brazil’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Marina Silva stepped down from her post Wednesday (Apr. 1). This was her third term in the position, all appointed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Like other ministers, she is leaving office to run in the upcoming October elections.

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The minister took stock of her 39-month tenure, from January 1, 2023, to April 1, 2026. In her speech, she addressed Brazil’s return to leadership on the global environmental agenda, presented data on the reduction of deforestation in threatened biomes, and discussed the ministry’s institutional recovery.

“When we arrived, in January 2023, we found an organization that needed to be rebuilt in terms of its political, ethical, technical, administrative, and operational capacity. Since then, we have revitalized Brazil’s environmental governance by adding more than 1,557 staff members to the ministry’s system,” she declared.

During this period, she said, the ministry’s annual budget more than doubled – growing by 120 percent, from BRL 865 million in 2022 to BRL 1.9 billion in 2025. “Institutional reconstruction means people, budget, governance, and execution capacity,” she added.

The budget increase and the recovery of the ministry and its affiliated agencies have yielded results, she argued.

“In 2025, compared to 2022, deforestation fell by 50 percent in the Amazon and 32.3 percent in the cerrado, preventing the emission of 733.9 million tons of CO₂ equivalent. In the most recent cycle of alerts, from August 2025 to February 2026, there was a further reduction of 33 percent in the Amazon and seven percent in the cerrado.”

“If we continue at this pace, even during such a challenging period, we stand to achieve the lowest rate on record,” she said.

With expanded teams and increased financial resources, greater action was taken in the most threatened areas. From 2022 to 2025, Brazil had 3.4 million hectares undergoing native vegetation restoration. The minister also reported that, in the same comparison, the area covered by illegal mining in the Amazon was reduced by 50 percent.

In addition to providing an accountability report and presenting results, the address marked the handover of the ministry’s helm to João Paulo Ribeiro Capobianco, the ministry’s current executive secretary. The appointment, Minister Marina Silva said, will ensure “the continuity of the policies adopted by President Lula’s administration in recent years.”

She said she views “political action as a service” and stated that she is “neither optimistic nor pessimistic,” but “persistent.”

In her view, “there is no civilization if denialism prevails. If it prevails, perhaps there won’t even be a planet.”