RIO - Petrobras' director of institutional relations, Rafael Chaves, said earlier that Petrobras will operate in the carbon credit market on both the demand and supply side. According to Chaves, in the coming years, the company plans to invest R$ 120 million in carbon capture solutions focused on forests. He participated, on Monday, 11, in the online panel "Solutions based on nature for carbon capture", by the Brazilian Center for International Relations (Cebri).

Chaves also said that companies of petrobras' size cannot wait for the regulated carbon credit market and should operate in the voluntary market. "We can't just wait for what the regulator is going to do. We can charge governments, but we can't just wait for the solution to come from Brasilia. I believe in market solutions (for the environmental problem)," chaves said.

Petrobras' range of actions, Chaves said, involves reforestation, preservation and actions that target local communities to generate income associated with forest protection - cases of forest management and compensation for environmental services.

Just over 40% of this financial effort for petrobras' environment (R$ 50 million) will be made under the Living Forest program, already launched by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) at COP-26 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Public calls for financing reforestation projects aim to reach R$ 500 million to reforest up to 33,000 hectares of all Brazilian biomes. Half of the amount will be invested by BNDES in line with the contributions of companies, such as Petrobras, which has committed to the investment of R$ 50 million over five years.

The operationalization of Petrobras projects within the Living Forest will be carried out by the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (Funbio), which Chaves described as a civil association with a history of 25 years and more than 400 environmental projects in the portfolio. Funbio will also assist the other investors of The Living Forest.

The rest of Petrobras' investment, R$ 70 million, will be sprayed on other fronts. Chaves cited income generation projects for local communities, such as the collection and marketing of brazil nuts, financing of cisterns for family farming in the caatinga and preservation of water resources in the Atlantic Forest.

Limiting emissions

The director acknowledged that Petrobras acts to limit the emissions of its operations, such as emissions associated with its end activity, oil production and fuel refining, but that the initiatives are not enough to clean up the entire chain, which brings with it the need to neutralize emissions through environmental projects.

According to the director of Petrobras, Brazil is in an advantageous position to offset carbon emissions in the world through forest protection, saving 20% of this potential. For him, added the potential for renewable energy generation, Brazil has a profile not only to easily beat the goals of the Paris agreement, to zero emissions by 2050, but also to move to "negative emission", exporting capture possibilities to other countries and companies.

Source: Terra