💧 The future of Petrobras

Oil and gas company Petrobras is a Brazilian national symbol, forged in the 1950s off the back of the O Petróleo é Nosso (The Oil is Ours) campaign, during the Getúlio Vargas government. But more than 75 years on, the iconic state-controlled institution faces a fundamental choice: cling to its history of fossil fuels, or lead Brazil into a necessary — albeit challenging — low-carbon future.

For now, Petrobras seems to be veering towards more of the same. Its current strategic plan is focused heavily on expanding fossil-fuel production, making it incompatible with Brazil’s climate commitments and exposing this reputable company to severe long-term financial risk.

Two recent reports — one from the aforementioned Climate Observatory and another by economists Carlos Alberto Young and Helder Queiroz of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) — argue that there’s another way forward for Petrobras, proposing a roadmap for the state-controlled major to…

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