An Equinor executive has fanned the flames of controversy over wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil that are being blamed on government policies promoting deforestation.

The country’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has faced mass protests over the illegal fires ripping into the world’s largest tropical rainforest, caused mainly by small landholders clearing land for agriculture and land-grabbers destroying trees.

This prompted an emergency meeting of G7 leaders last month to discuss the deforestation amid criticism of the Bolsonaro regime’s environmental policies that are believed to be behind the crisis.

Hardly, then, the right time for Equinor’s recently appointed Brazil development & production chief Margareth Ovrum to rally to the defence of Bolsonaro.

Ovrum said “in Brazil about 80% of the rainforest is protected”, adding that the government “actually has good management” of forestry. She added that deforestation in the country is being carried out at a much lower rate than a few decades ago, saying there was a “very worrying” spike this year due to illegal activity.

Equinor’s biggest shareholder, the Norwegian state, has recently pulled its funding for Brazil’s protection of the rainforest over alleged breach of agreements.

“I completely share the great concerns over deforestation that we see in Brazil. Protection of the rainforest is important for the climate and illegal deforestation must be stopped,” Ovrum said. “At Equinor, we are very clear that protection and planting of new forests are essential to achieve the goals of the Paris climate accord.”

Equinor last year launched an investment initiative to protect tropical rainforests, including increased tree-planting, to offset carbon dioxide emissions from its oil and gas projects as part of a global effort to reach climate goals set by the agreement.

Ovrum’s comments sparked a political backlash, with Norway’s Climate & Environment Minister Ola Elvestuen blaming Brazil's government for the deforestation, while the head of the Rainforest Fund, Oyvind Eggen, characterised it as a “belly-flop for Equinor as a socially responsible company”.

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Equinor’s Ovrum wades into burning Brazil issue