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BRASILIA — Brazil’s Environment Ministry has fired two senior climate officials, leaving the posts vacant at a time when the country is under growing scrutiny for the greenhouse gases released by clearing the Amazon rainforest.

The dismissal of the ministry’s director in charge of climate change and his deputy were announced in the official government gazette on Wednesday.

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The Environment Ministry told Reuters in a statement that the personnel move was designed to give “a new dynamic to the agenda of adaptation to climate change,” without elaborating. The ministry said replacements would be announced in due course.

The right-wing government of President Jair Bolsonaro had already reduced the emphasis on climate change within the ministry, turning a vice-minister-level role on climate change into a directorship.

Bolsonaro has also appointed key officials who question the science behind climate change. Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo has called it a Marxist conspiracy. Environment Minister Ricardo Salles has said he is not sure if global warming is man-made.