STRATEGY TO REDUCE INTENSITY OF EMISSIONS

Principle 7 Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges

Climate change is one of the focal points of the company’s new strategic projects. The aim is to achieve standards of excellence in the energy industry with regard to reducing the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions in processes and products. This will contribute to the sustainability of business and to reducing the impacts of global climate change. This challenge is present in the Petrobras strategic plan 2020.

Different aspects are involved in the risks associated with global climate change. They include: regulating aspects, harm to reputation, market loss and restricted access to the financial market, besides those relating to vulnerability and adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change. The risks increasingly influence the composition of investment portfolios by international credit institutions and the analyses of agencies assessing investments and business performance. They include the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, Goldman Sachs and the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Petrobras attended the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, in January. The event discussed issues on global development, such as climate change and biofuels.

REDUCTION OF THE INTENSITY OF EMISSIONS

In 2008, the company prevented the emission of 680,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), as recorded by its indicator Avoided Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Petrobras intends to avoid emission of 2.3 and 4.5 million tons of CO2e in 2009 and 2013, respectively. The company goals allow a reduction in the growth curve of the volume of emissions without restricting business expansion, considering a business as usual scenario.

In September, the 2nd Petrobras International Seminar on the Geological Storage and Capture of CO2 took place. Its objective was to further the exchange of experiences and discuss initiatives to mitigate climate change by the capture and geological storage (injection in underground rocks) of carbonic gas. The event had more than 300 delegates, plus speakers from 13 countries.

Besides these initiatives, the Petrobras Environmental Program included as one of its lines of action the sponsorship of carbon fixing and avoided emissions projects, based on the productive reconversion of areas, recovering of degraded areas and the conservation of forests and natural areas.

TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS

The Climatic Change Mitigation Technology Program (Proclima) was created in December 2007 to provide technological solutions for reducing the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG ) in Petrobras processes and products. The program focuses on the sustainability of the business of Petrobras and seeks to contribute to the reduction of global climate change.

The previous year, the company created the Thematic Network of Carbon Sequestration and Climate Change for developing the domestic infrastructure and capacity building in technologies of capture, geological storage of CO2 and assessment of the potential vulnerability of the company business with regard to impacts on climate change. One of the results obtained by the network, consisting of 18 Brazilian research institutions, is the construction of the Center of Excellence for Carbon Storage Research (Cepac), in Porto Alegre, South Brazil.