Petrobras is failing on Paris climate goals

Back in November 2023, the International Energy Agency said the oil and gas industry faced a  “moment of truth” — a choice between contributing to a worsening climate crisis or becoming part of the solution by embracing the transition to clean energy. A new report from the financial climate think tank Carbon Tracker suggests which side Big Oil has picked.

Instead of pulling back, the sector is poised to develop enough new oil and gas resources to push up global average surface temperatures more than 2°C by the end of the century.

Carbon Tracker graded the 25 largest publicly traded oil and gas companies according to the extent to which they align with the Paris Agreement’s climate goals. The results are ominous. Based on metrics that included production plans, emissions targets, and investment options, not a single company was deemed compliant.

Petrobras, Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant, ranked near the bottom of the list. Only Saudi Aramco and two Texas-based companies (Pioneer and ConocoPhillips) scored lower.

Moreover, Petrobras is an outlier among national oil companies, which Carbon Tracker says are almost universally more aligned with a moderate transition. 

A study of the world’s largest oil and gas projects by Rystad Energy, a consulting firm, shows that only Saudi Arabia and Qatar have surpassed Brazil in the size of projects approved for 2022 and 2023.

Petrobras’s 2024-2028 strategic plan calls for investments of USD 11.5 billion in low-carbon projects. While doubling previous figures, the amount is dwarfed by the company’s total investment of USD 102 billion for the period — two-thirds of which will be used to extract oil from deepwater reserves. 

Petrobras CEO Jean Paul Prates said the company’s investment in renewables would gradually increase to 16 percent of total investment...