Brazil

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Brazil

Population:	188,078,227[1]
GDP (PPP):	$1.616 tril. (2006 est.)[1]
Petroleum – consumption – imports: – Gasoline to diesel ratio:	2.194 mil. bbl/day (2005 est.)[1] 572,600 bbl/day (2001)[1] 53.9% diesel, 26.2% gas, 17% ethanol (by volume) (2006) [2]
Electricity – consumption – Main sources:	391.7 billion kWh (2004)[1] 82% hydro, 5% gas, 3% biomass, 3% oil, 3% nuclear, 2% coal[3]
Renewable energy targets:	3.3 GW added by 2016 from wind, biomass, small hydro[4]
Ethanol – production: – target: – feedstocks:	4,227 mil. gal/yr (2005)[5] 20-25% blending mandate[6] sugarcane
Biodiesel – production: – target – feedstocks:	343 mil. gallons/yr[7] 5% biodiesel in 2010[7] soybeans, castor beans, sunflower

Brazil is the world's second largest producer of ethanol and the world's first largest exporter. Sugar cane is the main feedstock for ethanol production. The use of ethanol fuel reached a 50% market share of the gasoline-powered fleet early in 2008^[8][9] thanks to the mandatory blend of 20 to 25 percent anhydrous ethanol in all gasoline sold in the country since 1993,^[10] and a fleet of more than six million flexible-fuel light vehicles that run on any blend of E25 gasoline and E100 hydrous ethanol.^[11] However, Brazil uses more diesel than gasoline and biodiesel production is still small, although growing rapidly. Other forms of bioenergy remain a relatively small proportion of Brazil's energy mix, although many ethanol plants are powered by burning sugar cane bagasse to generate electricity.^[12]

Contents 1 Events 2 Issues 2.1 International cooperation 3 Policy 4 News 5 Organizations 5.1 International organizations 5.2 Governmental organizations 5.3 Nongovernmental organizations 5.4 Industry organizations 5.5 Labor organizations 5.6 Academic organizations 6 Publications 7 Websites 7.1 Blogs 8 Notes

Events

• 3-4 April 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Biofuels Markets Americas. By GreenPower Conferences.

• 23-27 June 2008, Curitiba, Brazil: 3rd International Bioenergy Congress & BIOTech Fair. (Themes: bioenergy, biotechnology)

• 3-4 September 2008, Rio de Janiero, Brazil: Biofuels: Lessons from Brazil (Themes: Brazil, markets, trade)

• 16-17 September 2008, Salvador da Bahia, Brazil: Bioenergy World Americas 2008. (Themes: biofuels, sustainability)

• 27-28 October 2008, São Paulo, Brazil: International DATAGRO Conference on Sugar and Ethanol. (Themes: ethanol, sugarcane)

• 11-12 November, 2008, São Paulo: Cogeneration Brazil - Capitalising on a third revenue stream for sugar mills. (Themes: cogeneration, sugar, technology, finance)

17-21 November 2008, São Paulo, Brazil: International Conference on Biofuels.

Issues

International cooperation

• Brazil-Indonesia Consultative Committee on Biofuels. Bilateral agreement with Indonesia.

Policy

• National Program of Biodiesel Production and Use.
  • Social Fuel Stamp - This program attempts to deal with the question of social sustainability of biofuels by providing tax incentives for biodiesel producers to purchase feedstocks from small family farms in poorer regions of the country.
    • To receive the stamp producers must agree to:
      • "To purchase minimum percentages of raw materials from family farmers, 10% from regions North and Mid-West; 30% from the South and Southeast and 50% from the Northeast and the Semi-Arid Region; and
      • "To enter into contracts with family farmers establishing deadlines and conditions of delivery of the raw material and the respective prices, and to provide them with technical assistance."^[13]

News

• 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'."[1]

• EU biofuel panic threatens planet - Brazil envoy, 19 September 2008 by Reuters/Business Feed: "Europe's heated debate over biofuels risks weakening one of the world's best tools to fight climate change and one of the developing world's best hopes for economic growth, Brazil's ambassador to the EU said on Friday."
  • "'What I fear is the debate over biofuels has taken on a very emotional character and we have somewhere got lost in this emotion,'" said Maria Celina de Azevedo Rodrigues."
  • The "huge potential market for biofuels is coveted by exporters such as Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as European farming nations. But the European Parliament last week agreed a 6 percent limit for fuels from foods such as Brazilian sugar."[2]

• IDB launches interactive Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard 9 September 2008 press release by the IADB. The Inter-American Development Bank released an interactive tool known as the Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard on September 9th, during the 4th Annual Western Hemisphere Energy Security and Cooperation Forum, held at IDB's headquarters in Washington DC. and as part of a comprehensive effort to ensure that biofuel investments produce social, economic and environmental benefits. The Scorecard addresses 23 key environmental and social issues such as food security, greenhouse gas emissions, water management, land use change, biodiversity or poverty reduction. The IDB is inviting comments and suggestions regarding the Scorecard, which is available atwww.iadb.org/secci, during a six month public consultation period that will end in March 2009.
• Small farmers to join Brazil sustainable cane move, 1 September 2008, by Reuters: "Dozens of small and medium-scale farmers in Brazil's Sao Paulo state will grow sugar cane certified as meeting strict social and environmental standards, the region's cane producers association said late on Thursday."
  • Sugarcane suppliers joining the program "must refuse the use of child or slave labor, limit their use of agrochemicals, and gather their cane with mechanical harvesters as opposed to cutting it manually. Manual cutting involves burning the plant's foliage, which pollutes the air."
  • "Production standards, which will come into force on August 30, were set by Organizacao Internacional Agropecuaria (OIA), a private company which provides inspection and certification services."[3]

• Prsident Lula promises aid to Costa Rica to produce biofuels, La Nación, [4], July 31 2008. Brazil's President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, promised technical and technological support for Costa Rica to produce biofuels. Lula da Silva said that Costa Rica has the conditions to lead a "biofuel revolution in Central America." He also emphasized the country's environmental sustainability and long tradition with sugar cane crops. Lula da Silva confirmed his visit to Costa Rica early next year. The presidents signed in Brasilia 10 agreements of technical cooperation offered by Brazil since 1997, among others, the agreement to provide Brazilian assistance in biofuel production.

• Biofuels major driver of food price rise - World Bank 28 July 2008, Reuters. A World Bank policy research working paper released today says that biofuels have raised food prices between 70 to 75 percent. The study found that higher oil prices and a weak dollar explain 25-30% of total price rise. The "month-by-month" five year analysis disputes that increases in global grain consumption and droughts were responsible for price increases, reporting that this had had only a marginal impact and instead argues that the EU and US drive for biofuels has had by far the biggest impact on food supply and prices. The paper concludes that increased production of biofuels in the US and EU were supported by subsidies and tariffs on imports, and considers that without these policies, price increases would have been smaller. This research also concluded that Brazil's sugar cane based ethanol has not raised sugar prices significantly, and suggest to remove tariffs on ethanol imports by both the US and EU, to allow more efficient producers such as Brazil and other developing countries to produce ethanol profitably for export to meet the mandates in the UE and the US. Access the full report here,

• IDB lends $269 million for three Brazilian ethanol plants 23 July 2008 press release by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) regarding the Board's approval of the loan today: “At a time of soaring food and energy prices, it is crucial to develop renewable fuels that don’t compete with food crops,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno. “After examining the social, environmental and economic dimensions of these projects for more than a year, we concluded that they will produce clean and sustainable energy and provide quality jobs—without impacting food prices in any way.”
  • "The IDB is developing a “Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard” that will facilitate assessment by all interested parties of dimensions, such as land, climate, water use and biodiversity, in a potential biofuels project. This interactive scorecard will be posted on the IDB’s website in August."[5]

• Biofuel policies in OECD countries costly and ineffective, says report, 16 July 2008 press release by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD): "The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is a primary reason for current biofuel policies but the savings are limited. Ethanol from sugar cane - the main feedstock used in Brazil – reduces greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent compared to fossil fuels. But emission reductions are much smaller from biofuels based on feedstocks used in Europe and North America.""[6]

• Report finds land use change in the Amazon is first and foremost a product of ranching (PDF file), 11 July 2008, Amigos da Terra (Brazil). "In 2007, for the first time, the Legal Amazon passed the historical threshold of 10 million head of cattle slaughtered, with an increase of 46% over the figure in 2004. Growth in production in the Amazon was decisive for Brazil to become, since 2004, the second largest global producer of beef, even when the EU is treated as a single country. (...) The explosion of ranching in the Amazon over the last decade was responsible for a volume of emissions of greenhouse gases of between 9 and 12 billion tons of CO₂-equivalent (...), that is, an order of magnitude comparable in volume to two years of emission by the USA."
  • See the report: The Cattle Realm: A new phase in the livestock colonization of Brazilian Amazonia

• Biofuels Battle: Tear Down The Brazilian Wall, 1 July 2008 in the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog: "Biofuels have few friends lately. But Brazil’s biofuel industry found a big one —- U.S. Senator Richard Lugar."
  • "Sen. Lugar thinks Brazilian ethanol -- made from sugarcane rather than corn -- could help lower U.S. gasoline prices, which have reached record levels. Unica, not surprisingly, thinks the same, and blames Washington’s $0.54 per gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol for American pain at the pump."

• Biofuels in Brazil: Lean, green and not mean, 26 June 2008 in The Economist. The article argues that ethanol from Brazilian sugar cane is environmentally friendly and unlikely to impact food prices, and that the US should drop its tariff on imported ethanol.

• Another Inconvenient Truth: Biofuels are not the answer to climate or fuel crisis, 26 June 2008. A report released by Oxfam today criticized biofuel policies of rich countries and concluded that from all biofuels available in the market, Brazilian sugarcane ethanol is "far from perfect" but it is the most favorable biofuel in the world in term of cost and GHG balance. The report discusses some existing problems and potential risks, and asks the Brazilian government for caution to avoid jeopardazing its environmental and social sustainability. The report also says that: “Rich countries spent up to $15 billion last year supporting biofuels while blocking cheaper Brazilian ethanol, which is far less damaging for global food security. Access full the report here.

• Brazil signs deal to export sustainable ethanol, 25 June 2008, Reuters: "A group of Brazilian ethanol companies signed a deal to export certified sustainable ethanol to Sweden, in the world's first agreement of such a kind, they said"

• Brazil's president says biofuel crops are not pushing up food prices, 10 April 2008 by the International Herald Tribune: "Brazil's president insisted Thursday that crops used for ethanol are not responsible for driving up food prices, and said Haiti — where food riots have erupted recently — could benefit from a biofuel industry."

• Sao Joao 24mW biogas power plant comes on stream, 29 January 2008, Biofuel Review, the biogas plant will extract methane from a landfill and use it to generate power for the city of Sao Paolo.

• Amazon Deforestation Surging Again, 18th January 2008. According to Reuters, "Deforestation of the Amazon has surged in recent months and is likely to rise in 2008 for the first time in four years, a senior Brazilian government scientist said on Wednesday."

• "Corn... fuel... fire! U.S. corn subsidies promote Amazon deforestation", 8 January 2008 press release from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute: According to STRI researcher William Laurance, "Amazon deforestation and fires are being aggravated by US farm subsidies...that promote American corn production for ethanol." Corn subsidies also result in farmers reducing production of soy -- thus increasing global soy prices, which in turn promotes burning of forests in the Brazilian Amazon in order to clear land for soy cultivation.
  • According to Laurance, "The evidence of a corn connection to the Amazon is circumstantial, but it's about as close as you ever get to a smoking gun."[7]

• Brazil case accents need for new biofuels rules. Brazil is preparing to finally take their case against US ethanol tariffs before the WTO. It is expected that regardless of the results of the case, the WTO will be prompted to develop new rules for the regulation of biofuels.

• Brazilian president calls on Africa to join biofuels revolution. According to Biopact, the president called for Africa to ensure its energy independence and economic growth through taking advantage of the biofuels market."

• Japanese Biofuel Project in Brazil Creates 50,000 Direct Jobs, 19 June 2007 from Brazzilmag.com. Japan's Itochu and Petrobras have agreed to cooperate on a project in Pernambuco State in Brazil's Northeast, involving construction of a large "Canal of the Savannah" and conversion of 150,000 hectares to planting of sugarcane, castor beans and other biofuel crops. Japan is interested in developing biofuel sources in Brazil and elsewhere to help meet their own biofuel and Kyoto Protocol targets.

• Brazil assessing 10x increase in ethanol production; 10% of Global Gasoline in 18 years, 1 April 2007 from Tierramerica.net. A government group led by the Interdisciplinary Group for Energy Planning of Campinas University concluded that Brazil could produce 205 billion liters of ethanol by 2025, which is about 10% of projected gasoline demand. This could be done "without sacrificing forests, protected areas or food cultivation". One of the key assumptions of the group is the development of cellulosic ethanol technologies that can use bagasse, the main by-product of sugar ethanol production.

• Brazil and Indonesia in biofuels agreement, 15 March 2007 from Green Car Congress. Brazil and Indonesia have signed an agreement for cooperation on biofuels. The memorandum for the creation of a Brazil-Indonesia Consultative Committee on Biofuels sets the stage for Brazil to help Indonesia develop its ethanol industry. Indonesia is planning on using 2.25 million hectares to grow sugarcane and cassava as feedstocks for ethanol production.

• Bush Seeks Ethanol Alliance With Brazil, 4 March 2007 by AP, reported that U.S. President Bush will sign an agreement with Brazilian President da Silva on Friday, 9 March, in São Paulo to "to develop standards to help turn ethanol into an internationally traded commodity, and to promote sugar cane-based ethanol production in Central America and the Caribbean to meet rising international demand." The article notes that "coming up with technical standards to define quality levels for ethanol is key to turn it into a commodity that could be traded like oil."

• U.S., Brazil plan ethanol partnership 2 March 2007 by USA Today, reports that an international partnership to promote trade in ethanol is to be launched during U.S. President Bush's visit to Brazil next week. The article reports that the "USA and Brazil produce more than 70% of the world's ethanol" and that the partnership will promote "research to make ethanol production more efficient" and work to create "a global market."

• Brazil increases biodiesel target to 5% by 2010 on rising production potential 27 February 2007 from Biopact.com. Brazil is now producing 640 mil. liters of biodiesel/yr, but after 13 factories come online in the first half of 2007, total production is expected to reach 1.3 bil. l/year. That will be double the 2% blending target for 2008 and as a result Brazil is moving up their 5% target from 2013 to 2010. As Brazil only imports 5% of its diesel, this will mean the end of diesel imports.

• Brazil's Tecbio Plans Aviation Biofuel by 2008, September 2006, from Bioproducts Alberta, a firm in Brazil claims to be working on the secret formula for biokerosene, which will be sent to NASA for testing and evaluation in two years at the most.

• President da Silva's Statement on Biofuels and Ethanol: Fuel for Thought 24 July 2006 (link to BiofuelsMarketplace.com of a statement originally printed in the Wall Street Journal).

Organizations

International organizations

• International Biofuels Forum - Brazil is a founding member of this group, which is working to develop standards for biofuels and facilitate their development as an international commodity.

Governmental organizations

• Brazilian Reference Center on Biomass (CENBIO)
• Brazilian National Biodiesel Production and Use Program (Portuguese only)
• Ministry of Science and Technology
• Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia (INT)
• Agencia Nacional de Energia Eletrica (ANEEL)
• Biodiesel-Programa Nacional de Produção e Uso de Biodiesel
• Centro de Pesquisas de Energia Elétrica (CEPEL)
• Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear
• Itaipu binational hydroelectric project
• Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. (Eletrobrás)
• Comite Brasileiro de Eletricidade
• Ministerio de Minas e Energia
• Operador Nacional do Sistema Eletrico
• Programa Nacional da Racionalização do Uso dos Derivados do Petróleo e do Gás Natural (Conpet)

Nongovernmental organizations

• Brazilian Forum of Non-governmental Organizations and Social Movements (FBOMS)
  • FBOMS issued the report "Sustainability Criteria and Indicators for Bioenergy," February, 2006.
• Federation of Rural Workers of Brazil
• Fórum de Resistência aos Agronegócios
• Rede Social

Industry organizations

• ABESCO - Associação Brasileira das Empresas de Conservação de Energia
• Copersucar
• Cosan S/A
• Dedini S/A
• UNICA (Sugar Cane Industry Association/União da Indústria da Cana-de-Açúcar) (sugarcane)
• ORPLANA (Sugarcane Growers Organization of the Center South Region of Brazil)

ABCE - Associação Brasileira das Concessionárias de Energia Elétrica

Labor organizations

• Central Union of Workers (CUT)
• Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST)

Academic organizations

• University of Campinas (São Paulo)

Publications

See books, reports, scientific papers, position papers and websites for additional useful resources.

• Betting on Biofuels: Opportunities and Implications Woodrow Wilson Center, STAGE Program and the United Nations Office in New York, May 15 2008. Includes links to video and presentations
• Sugarcane Ethanol and Land Use in Brazil Seminar Brazil Institute - Woodrow Wilson Center, April 2008. Includes links to audio, video and presentation documents
• U.S.–Brazil Biofuels Cooperation: One Year Later, Brazil Institute - Woodrow Wilson Center, March 2008
• Climate change, biofuels and eco-social impacts in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado (PDF file). by Donald Sawyer. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Volume 363, February 2008, Pages 1747–1752.
  • This article cautions that the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado regions are at risk of conversion to degraded pasture as a result of biofuels expansion, and offers policy recommendations to mitigate these impacts.
• Sustainability of Brazilian Bioethanol (PDF)by Edward Smeets, Martin Junginger, André Faaij (Utrecht University);Arnaldo Walter, Paulo Dolzan (State University of Campinas); commissioned by SenterNovem, The Netherlands Agency for Sustainable Development and Innovation, August 2006.
• Agribusiness and Biofuels: an Explosive Mixture - Impacts of Monoculture Expansion on Bioenergy Production in Brazil by Silvia Noronha, Lúcia Ortiz (general coordination), Sergio Schlesinger (editorial coordination); Friends of the Earth, Brazil, 2006.
• Liquid Biofuels for Transportation in Brazil: Potential and Implications for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy in the 21st Century (PDF file),GTZ, 2005.
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the production and use of ethanol in Brazil: present situation, Isaias de Carvalho Macedo (NIPE/UNICAMP); Manoel Regis Lima Verde Leal(CTC/Copersucar) and João Eduardo Azevedo Ramos da Silva (CTC/Copersucar),(2002).

Websites

• Brazil Institute:Biofuels Central, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Blogs

• Ethablog - "The only blog in English dedicated to Brazilian ethanol"

Notes

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/br.html
2. ↑ http://www.hubbertpeak.com/BR/
3. ↑ http://www.iea.org/Textbase/stats/electricitydata.asp?COUNTRY_CODE=BR
4. ↑ REN21 Renewables Global Status Report 2005 p. 20.
5. ↑ http://www.ethanolrfa.org/industry/statistics/
6. ↑ The Emerging Biofuels Market: Regulatory, Trade and Development Implications (PDF File) prepared by Simonetta Zarrilli; UNCTAD, 2006, p. 20-21.
7. ↑ ^7.0 7.1 http://biopact.com/2007/02/brazil-increases-biodiesel-target-to-5.html
8. ↑ Consumo de álcool supera o de gasolina pela primeira vez em 20 anos (Portuguese)
9. ↑ ANP: consumo de álcool combustível é 50% maior em 2007 (Portuguese)
10. ↑ Lei Nº 8.723, de 28 de Outubro de 1993. Dispõe sobre a redução de emissão de poluentes por veículos automotores e dá outras providências (Portuguese) Since July 2007 the mandatory blend is E25
11. ↑ Veículos flex somam 6 milhões e alcançam 23% da frota (Portuguese)
12. ↑ Ethanol fuel in Brazil at Wikipedia
13. ↑ National Program on Biodiesel Production and Use Pamphlet (English)

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