During Petrobras’s Annual General Meeting on Thursday, a group of civil society organisations protested outside the company’s building in Rio de Janeiro, calling for a just energy transition and climate justice.
The company, which reported profits exceeding BRL 110 billion ($22 billion) in 2025, is facing criticism for the contradiction of hiring numerous influencers to promote its “just energy transition” while simultaneously cutting its budget for renewable energy projects.
In a statement released in March 2026, Petrobras president Magda Chambriard reinforced the company’s focus on expanding fossil fuel production, stating, “2025 was extraordinary in terms of production. The increase in oil and gas volume allowed us to offset the effects of the drop in Brent and achieve robust financial results.”
The company’s astronomical profits are being announced less than 10 days before the start of the 1st International Conference on the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, to be held April 24–29, 2026, in Santa Marta, Colombia.
Yet, Brazil is one of the leading actors at the event, as it continues to hold the Presidency of the UN Climate Conference (COP) through November of this year.
In its 2026–2030 Business Plan, Petrobras cut resources earmarked for the energy transition by 20%.
The company has been out of step with the global commitments Brazil has already made to reduce emissions, maintaining plans to expand its exploration frontier toward the mouth of the Amazon River and other sedimentary basins along the country’s northern coast.
There are viable and profitable paths for Petrobras to leave fossil fuels behind.
The position paper ‘The Petrobras We Need” launched by the network Observatório do Clima in September 2025, proposes that Petrobras should diversify its core business and prioritise investments in low-carbon fuels rather than planning new refineries.
“They profit billions while we pay: as taxpayers, because we fund fossil fuel subsidies and the environmental damage caused by oil and gas extraction; as consumers, in our electricity, gas and fuel bills — which consume a large share of household income; and as citizens, with public budget increasingly needing to be reallocated to deal with losses caused by climate disasters instead of basic public needs as healthcare and education,” said João Cerqueira, Director of 350.org Brazil
“Petrobras can and must lead more effective actions for the energy transition. It needs to internalise the gravity of the climate crisis and diversify its investments, with concrete action in renewable sources – not just narrative and communications efforts,” added Suely Araújo, Public Policy Coordinator at Observatório do Clima
Shigueo Watanabe Jr., researcher at ClimaInfo, explained that the attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran “shattered the supposed ‘energy security'” associated with fossil fuels and exposed the financial urgency of the energy transition to guarantee countries’ sovereignty.
“Therefore, Petrobras’s plans to expand investments in fossil fuels — especially over areas of high environmental sensitivity, such as the mouth of the Amazon river — at the expense of renewable sources and low-carbon fuels, are a risk to the company’s own long-term economic and financial viability,” Watanabe explained. “Given the role Petrobras plays in the national economy, it is crucial that the company become an energy company, truly leading a just energy transition and leaving its oil past behind.”
