CLIMATE CHANGE:
Brazilian Ethanol Goes
It Alone
By Mario Osava*
BRASILIA, (Tierramérica)
- Despite the urgency to
reduce emissions that
contribute to climate
change, Brazil has been
unable to stave off the
doubts that are slowing
the growth of an
international market for
plant-based biofuels.
In the three decades
since fuel alcohol, or
ethanol, has been used
as a gasoline substitute
(or mixed with it) in
Brazil, the country has
avoided emissions of 600
million tonnes of
carbon, the main
contributor to global
warming, according to
Environment Minister
Marina Silva.
In comparison, the
reduction of carbon
emissions resulting from
decreased deforestation
in the Amazon jungle in
the last three years was
500 million tonnes, she
said.
The expansion of the
ethanol market could
contribute to fighting
climate change if the
trade barriers in the
developed economies are
removed, said World Bank
president Robert
Zoellick recently, in a
nod to the Bank's role
as an ally as Brazil
seeks to boost its
alternative fuels.
The statement from
Zoellick, who served as
the U.S. trade
representative from 2001
to 2005 and was a harsh
adversary of Brazil in
international trade
talks, was transmitted
by video to the G8+5
Legislators Forum on
Climate Change, held in
Brasilia, Feb. 20-21.
The forum drew lawmakers
from the Group of Eight
(G8) most powerful
countries, and from five
emerging economies --
Brazil, China, India,
Mexico and South Africa
-- and was promoted by
GLOBE (Global
Legislators Organisation
for a Balanced
Environment) and the
COM+ Alliance, a
partnership of
international
organisations and
communications
professionals.
The G8 comprises
Britain, Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan,
Russia and the United
States.
The legislators
discussed a document on
plant-based fuels --
seen as less polluting
than fossil fuels --
that included six
criteria for
sustainability and the
need to establish a
certification system for
ethanol and biofuels to
be recommended for
mitigating climate
change.
A detailed defence of
ethanol (made from
sugarcane in Brazil)
came from Marcos Jank,
president of the Sao
Paulo Sugarcane Industry
Union, whose membership
includes more than half
of Brazil's ethanol
production.
Ethanol means reductions
of more than 60 percent
of the greenhouse gas
emissions from gasoline,
said Jank.
Sugarcane, with 500
years of history in
Brazil, has for the past
three decades provided
energy-efficient
ethanol, and, more
recently, electricity
from the biomass of cane
pulp. Production today
costs just 30 percent of
what it did when the
gasoline substitution
programme began in 1975.
Growth in productivity
was spectacular, and
with the new hydrolysis
technology, which will
make use of the
sugarcane leaves and
other parts of the plant
that make up two-thirds
of its biomass, output
could be twice the
current production of
7,000 litres per
hectare, according to
Jank.
In the future, this food
crop will no longer be
known as "sugar cane",
but rather "electricity
and ethanol cane," he
said.
But the "sensationalist"
news and widely
disseminated opinions
have distorted what
could be a solution,
even if only partially,
in the fight against
climate change, said the
industrial union leader.
Production of ethanol
from corn and sugar
beets in the United
States and Europe --
which also have erected
high barriers on ethanol
imports --,
environmental concerns
and the scandal of cane
workers subjected to
conditions of slavery in
Brazil have generated a
wave of rejection that
is slowing the creation
of a global biofuel
market, in which
Brazilian ethanol would
be a major player.
In Jank's opinion, there
is an abundance of
"speculation" that
ignores concrete data,
like sugarcane energy
efficiency, which is
much greater than corn
or sugar beet.
The charge that
expansion of sugarcane
threatens the Amazon
makes no sense either,
he said, because
sugarcane does not adapt
to the humid climate of
the jungle, but rather
needs the climate found
in the region of Sao
Paulo state, the leading
producer.
The fact that some sugar
mills and distilleries
exist in the Amazon does
not indicated a trend,
and such activity will
not prosper because
sugarcane yields there
are very low there
compared to other
regions, agrees Mark
Lundell, environmental
coordinator for the
World Bank in Brazil.
Nor is it inevitable
that sugarcane will take
land away from food
production or push other
agricultural mainstays
like soy and livestock
to encroach on the
Amazon, according to
Jank.
If livestock were
productive and less
extensive, "it would
free up 50 million
hectares for agriculture
(in Brazil) ...and we
would not need more than
15 million hectares for
all the production and
export" possible of
ethanol in this country,
he said.
The World Bank has
become a major ally of
Brazil in its campaign
for cane ethanol and for
a biofuels free market.
Fuel alcohol already
supplies 30 percent of
the demand of vehicles
in Brazil, and occupies
just four million
hectares for its
production, or about
five percent of the land
used for agriculture,
said Pamela Cox, the
Bank's vice-president
for Latin America and
the Caribbean.
It is a low-cost
contribution towards
mitigating climate
change and a Brazilian
technology that has a
great role to play
globally, she told the
Forum.
The world could use
ethanol or biodiesel to
substitute 15 to 20
percent of the petroleum
it uses, according to
Sergio Bagrielli,
president of Petrobras,
the state-run oil
company that has
expanded its activity to
various energy sources.
To do so would not
require major
modifications to
existing vehicle
engines. No changes are
needed to add up to five
percent ethanol to
gasoline. Brazil already
mixes 25 percent in some
engine adaptations, and
developed a technology
for cars to use fuel
mixtures of any
proportion.
But the G8+5 Legislators
Forum noted the
isolation of Brazil in
its proposal for
creating a global
biofuels market.
Until just a few years
ago, ethanol was seen as
the "great solution",
but today it has become
just the opposite -- an
alternative that
contributes little or
nothing to mitigating
climate change, noted
Anders Wijkman, Swedish
member of the European
Parliament.
Many of the lawmakers
gathered in Brasilia,
some of whom visited
biofuel production
sites, said they were
impressed by the
environmental, social
and economic advantages
of sugarcane ethanol in
Brazil, especially its
potential for
replication in other
developing countries --
but they also expressed
some doubts.
That is why the initial
draft of the document
was not approved, after
facing objections from
several countries. The
approved recommendation,
less than what Brazil
expected, recognises the
South American giant's
leadership and the need
for certifications for
ethanol and biofuel. The
issue will be taken up
again by the G8 at its
next summit, in July.
(*Mario Osava is an IPS
correspondent.
Originally published by
Latin American
newspapers that are part
of the Tierramérica
network. Tierramérica is
a specialised news
service produced by IPS
with the backing of the
United Nations
Development Programme
and the United Nations
Environment Programme.) |
