The federal administration’s speech on the direction that Pemex will take, with fewer and fewer elements suggesting a path towards decarbonization, already shows an effect: the increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the main activities of the state company.
In the last three years, pollutant emissions have resumed an upward trend. In 2020, Pemex emitted 105 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in all its productive activities. The figure represents an increase of 12.75% compared to a year earlier, according to the latest data that the oil company revealed in its annual report.
The two activities that have increased their emission of polluting gases the most are the exploration and production of crude oil, and the refining of petroleum, both with 15% more in the last year. The upward trend in its refining complexes coincides with the presidential bid to increase refinery capacity and gasoline production.
But the upward trend began a year earlier, with a growth of 11.6% during 2019.
Although the data are unclear, due to a change in the methodology in which Pemex reports the emission of polluting gases, an annual report from the oil company indicates that it was in 2018 – the last year of the PRI administration – when it began to record increases in the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases it emits into the environment.
The company had set a goal that, with the latest figures, seems far from being met: Pemex had the goal of reducing 25% of total greenhouse gas emissions by this year. But the company’s records indicate that they are even higher than those recorded by Pemex between 2006 and 2008, when Cantarell, the largest oil asset the country has had, reported significant production.
In 2013, the oil company outlined an action plan with a series of climate change adaptation and mitigation goals, but the outlined objectives no longer appear in the company’s new plans. “From 2017-2018, the company began to look towards other priorities (…). It seems that there is no, at least not publicized, an environmental strategy directed to objectives ”, says Ana Lilia Moreno, a researcher at the organization México Evalúa.
The organization, which has followed up on the actions of the oil company, concluded in a recent study that the current administration of the state company does not have a plan or actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, or reduce some of its other activities. only below the Chinese Guanghui Energy and the American Parsley Energy.
This is not the only organization that has positioned Pemex as one of the most polluting companies. The United States Institute for Climate Responsibility also pointed out that the oil company is among the 10 energy companies that have the most negative effects on the environment.
