Argentina

From BioenergyWiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Bioenergy > Regions > Latin America and the Caribbean > Argentina

Information about biofuels and bioenergy in Argentina.

  • Argentina is the second largest country in South America and has the highest Human Development Index level and Gross Domestic Product per capita of any country in Latin America. The Argentine government has passed major legislation promoting the use of biofuels, including a mandate of 5% ethanol, and 5% biodiesel at gas pumps and tax incentives to producers of these fuels.


Contents

Events

2009

2008

Issues

  • Pros and Cons of Argentina's new biofuels legislation - The new law, passed in April of 2006, grants tax incentives to producers of biofuels and ensures a market for these fuels by mandating a certain percentage of fuel sold at gas stations to be biodiesel or ethanol. Critics say that the downside of this plan will be an increased demand for soybean production which threatens biodiversity and causes social problems of land management and ownership. [1]

News

  • Surging costs hit food security in poorer nations, 6 June 2010 by Associated Press: "With food costing up to 70 percent of family income in the poorest countries, rising prices are squeezing household budgets and threatening to worsen malnutrition....Compounding the problem in many countries: prices hardly fell from their peaks in 2008, when global food prices jumped in part due to a smaller U.S. wheat harvest and demand for crops to use in biofuels."
    • "The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's food price index — which includes grains, meat, dairy and other items in 90 countries — was up 22 percent in March from a year earlier though still below 2008 levels."
    • "Costs also have been pushed up by a rebound in global commodity prices, especially for soy destined for Asian consumption. That has prompted a shift in Argentina and elsewhere to produce more for export, which has led to local shortages of beef and other food."
    • "In Argentina, soy production has taken over more than 32 million acres (13 million hectares) of grassland once used to raise cattle and replaced less profitable wheat and corn as well, driving up prices in supermarkets."[2]
  • Biofuel producers warn EU over "unjustifiably complex" sustainability rules, 7 November 2008 by BusinessGreen: "Eight developing countries have written to the EU warning they will complain to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) if it passes proposed legislation designed to improve the environmental sustainability of biofuels by restricting the types of fuels the bloc imports."
    • "The EU is considering legislation that is intended to ban the purchase of biofuels from energy crop plantations that are believed to harm the environment and lead to food shortages by displacing land used for food crops and contributing to rainforest deforestation."
    • "[E]ight countries – Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Indonesia and Malaysia – have written to the EU to protest against the proposals" in a letter that "claims that the new rules would 'impose unjustifiably complex requirements on producers' and argues that environmental criteria 'relating to land-use change will impinge disproportionately on developing countries'."[3]

Organizations

Governmental organizations

Nongovernmental organizations

Companies

  • Biofuels SA - according to the company's founder Biofuels SA manufacturers and sells biodiesel reactors that produce high quality biodiesel with half the energy input of other reactors.

Policies/Issues

  • "In Argentina, the Biofuels Act, approved in April, imposes a requirement of five percent biodiesel or ethanol in petroleum derivatives beginning in January 2010," according to the IPS article Biofuel Boom Sparks Environmental Fears
    • The article further states that this "requires 600,000 tonnes of biodiesel and 160,000 tonnes of ethanol annually for the domestic market, which would absorb eight and three percent, respectively, of national output of soybeans and maize."[4]


Argentina edit

Events | Issues | News | Policies | Publications | Organizations (Companies)

Latin America and the Caribbean edit

Regional institutions: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard) | International Ethanol Commission
Caribbean Basin Initiative | Southern Agricultural Council
Organizations: LAC-CORE
Countries - Caribbean: Antigua & Barbuda | Aruba | Bahamas | Barbados | Cayman Islands | Cuba | Dominica | Dominican Republic | Grenada | Guadeloupe | Haiti | Jamaica | Martinique | Puerto Rico | St. Kitts and Nevis | St. Lucia | St. Vincent and the Grenadines | Trinidad & Tobago | Turks & Caicos Islands | Virgin Islands
Central America: Belize | Costa Rica | El Salvador | Guatemala | Honduras | Mexico | Nicaragua | Panama
South America: Argentina | Bolivia | Brazil | Chile | Colombia | Ecuador | French Guiana | Guyana | Paraguay | Peru | Suriname | Uruguay | Venezuela

Regions edit
Africa | Asia | Europe | Latin America and the Caribbean | Middle East | North America | Oceania & Pacific
See also: International cooperation | International organizations


Navigation
What is bioenergy? | Benefits/Risks | Who is doing what?

Events | Glossary | News | Organizations | Publications | Regions | Technologies/Feedstocks | Policy | Timeline | Voices
Wiki "sandbox" - Practice editing | About this Wiki | How to edit

Retrieved from "http://www.bioenergywiki.net/Argentina"
Personal tools